Protesters have begun blocking streets in the central German city of Giessen, with tens of thousands of people expected to gather to protest against the establishment of the new youth organization of the far-right party “Alternative for Germany“ (AfG), reported DPA, quoted by BTA.
The police said that groups of demonstrators had begun to stop traffic on highways, as well as on roads around the city.
The police said that in Giessen itself, a junction was blocked by a bus and the situation was “active”, with “many different places affected” throughout the city.
The municipal authorities and the police expect up to 50,000 participants to gather for about 30 registered demonstrations, rallies and vigils in the university town with a population of about 90,000, a third of whom are students.
Some of the protesters also announced that they would block access to the site of the founding meeting in order to prevent it from taking place.
The AfG wants to create a new organization called “Generation Germany“, to succeed the now-disbanded “Young Alternative“. “Young Alternative“ was dissolved by a decision of the party conference in March after being listed as an extremist organization by Germany's federal intelligence agency.
The new organization is expected to be headed by Jean-Pascal Homm, a politician from the state of Brandenburg. The state's domestic security service has included Homm on a list of “confirmed right-wing extremists“.
Police and Hesse Interior Minister Roman Posek said they were preparing for a “complex and large-scale situation” in Giessen, partly because calls for violence had already been made by the left.
Several thousand police officers from Hesse and 14 other federal states, as well as federal police forces, are expected to be mobilized.