Overview
- The AfD overwhelmingly re‑elected co‑leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla on Saturday as delegates met in Erfurt while tens of thousands of opponents staged road blockades and demonstrations that produced clashes with police.
- Multiple polls show the AfD leading nationally at about 29% and polling as high as 41% in Saxony‑Anhalt, levels that could hand it its first state government in the Sept. 6 votes if the trend holds.
- Germany’s domestic intelligence service previously classified the AfD as a proven right‑wing extremist group but a court has suspended use of that designation while it reviews the party’s legal challenge, limiting official surveillance and restrictions for now.
- Protest organizers and civil society groups pressed for a party ban and used sit‑in blockades to try to stop the conference, accusing AfD of promoting ‘remigration’ policies that they say amount to ethnic purging; AfD rejects those charges and calls the agency politicized.
- A win in a state would give AfD real control over education, policing and civil service jobs, a shift opponents warn would alter everyday governance, deepen polarization and reshape security oversight ahead of national contests.