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THOUSANDS OF LEFTIST demonstrators tried to disrupt a party congress by Germany’s right-wing populist AfD today, five months before a general election.
Around 50,000 demonstrators were expected to mobilise during the two-day gathering of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party in the western city of Cologne, with 4,000 police officers dispatched to keep the peace.
But as the 600 delegates began filing into the congress venue, a hotel in the city centre, singing and chanting demonstrators attempted to block them from passing through security barricades, leading to scuffles with authorities.
One police officer escorting party members into the suffered an injury to his face, leading to the arrest of a male protester.
The AfD, now represented in 11 of Germany’s 16 states, aims to sign off on a programme for its campaign that it hopes will pave the way for the party to enter the national parliament for the first time in its four-year history.
After weeks of bitter infighting, co-leader Frauke Petry made the shock announcement Wednesday that she would not seek to lead the AfD’s campaign. The news left the party reeling and set the stage for a showdown between populist and more radical, hard-right forces.
“(Petry) has been unable to stop the AfD, which began as a party of euro critics, from becoming more and more a catch-all for racists, right-wing nationalists and the far right,” Cologne’s daily Stadt-Anzeiger said.
“The fight within the AfD rages on.”
Founded in 2013 on a eurosceptic platform, the AfD seized on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to let in more than one million asylum seekers since 2015, transforming the German political landscape.
But its fortunes have declined as the number of new arrivals has dwindled, and all of Germany’s mainstream parties have ruled out working with it should it clear the 5% hurdle to representation in the 24 September election.
Opinion polls show the AfD at between 7-11%, a steep drop from the 15% support it drew only late last year.
Merkel is seeking a fourth term after nearly 12 years in power and her conservative Christian Democrats are currently leading the polls.
‘Tearing itself apart’
The telegenic Petry, a 41-year-old trained chemist who is pregnant with her fifth child, has aligned herself with kindred spirits across Europe, including far-right firebrand Marine Le Pen, one of the frontrunners for the first round of French elections Sunday.
But given the long shadow still cast by Germany’s Nazi past, Petry has argued the AfD must make itself more palatable with a more moderate-sounding “middle-class” platform she will put to a vote at the congress.
The stated goal is to become Germany’s ruling party by 2021.
Denouncing “provocations” by party officials, Petry has called for the ouster of an AfD state leader, Bjoern Hoecke, who in January sparked outrage by slamming Berlin’s vast Holocaust memorial as a “monument of shame”.
Although Hoecke has been barred from attending the congress, some delegates have said they will put forward a motion to keep him in the party.
Petry’s chief rival, 76-year-old Alexander Gauland, a hardline defector from Merkel’s CDU, has said he would back the initiative.
Analysts say the vast majority of the AfD’s core supporters are far to the right of the political spectrum.
However, they say there is little appetite among most German voters for radical change, particularly after the victories of Donald Trump in the United States and the Brexit camp in Britain.
“In terms of its voters, Petry’s attempt to make the AfD a middle-class mainstream party is a very unrealistic strategy,” Robert Vehrkamp of the Bertelsmann Foundation think tank told Spiegel Online.
The news website said the party’s inner turmoil also diminished the threat it posed to the establishment in Europe’s top economy.
“While in the rest of Europe, opponents of immigration and the EU are on the march, the AfD is busy tearing itself apart,” it said.
“That is good news for the traditional parties and the defenders of liberal values in Germany — at least in its current state, no one needs to fear the AfD.”
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If the film is an accurate representation of what these lads did a medal isn’t enough, it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, stuff of legends. “We fired every bullet twice” you couldn’t make it up much respect for all involved.
@Marc Walsh: Hear hear Marc. Couldn’t agree with you more..
After hearing about the Peacekeepers being killed today; it really puts their achievement into context.
If half of the story is true it is still amazing that none of them were killed.
@Niallers: Its all true. My father was a mortar commander in A Company. It was the most incredible thing watching the movie for the first time with him and seeing him relive it all. He said the only cinematic deviance that he was aware of was that the helicopter was shot before it got off the ground. In the movie the heli is shot out of the air. What it didn’t show was the chaplain going from tench to trench giving the men the last rites. My dad is a hero :)
@Helena Quinn: Yes he is .
@Helena Quinn: he most certainly is.respect.
Anyone who is sent to protect and comes out the otherside should have a lot more than a medal.
It’s amazing that the articles don’t include Conor Cruise O’Briens responsibility for the men being in this predicament.Whitewashed out of it for some reason.
I would appeal to the Irish government to recognise these brave warriors actions and that of their Commandant and award them the highest honour the state can bestow in the form of a proper decorative medal in respect of their outstanding bravery against overwhelming odds.I salute them and their memory for service towards world peace.True patriots all.
the movie was incredible, their story amazing, what they did was heroism, but that their own country condemned them as cowards and traitors is sickening, these men should have lived the life of heroes upon their return, but instead were cast aside as an embarrassment to the hierarchy of the army, shame shame shame
I am totally thrilled these men got recognised for their bravery and so those my father who was in the 34th Battalion in the Congo. As a veteran himself my father feels that all the battalions should get a recognition for their services especially the early ones like the 32nd, 33rd,34,35th,38th all involved in Combat. My father told me stories that’d make the hair stand on your head, he was in several situations and sieges where they had to fight their way out and he was always on the front line as a Bren. I’m getting his story told after Christmas and pursuing it more for recognition.
Give them medals. Long long overdue
Hear, hear. I don’t understand why they haven’t received individual medals for their courage already. The army knows what they went through – public opinion back in the day has nothing to do with how well they came through. Brilliant film too.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: medals lol you are hilarious
About time these men were truly honoured for their bravery.
The way they were treated was both embarrassing and shameful.
It seems the prologue to the siege involved Indian troops with a gung-ho attitude. The progression of the siege involved the Cruiser trying to protect his own ass. The end involved the Irish Top Brass displaying an ostrich head in the sand mentality. The Irish troops were treated as tiny pawns in a game. To treat them as cowards was utterly despicable by the Irish State. To have the reputation of a judicious commander who managed the situation and protected the lives of his men left in tatters by the attitude of his so called superiors was nothing short of scandalous.
The politicians , was it Connor cruise O brien involved in that
Bravery for making tea, decisions Lyons or Barrys
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