November 29, 2025
AfD youth party founding convention in Giessen draws protests
A two-day founding convention of young members of the far-right political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is drawing a massive crowd of opponents to the central German city of Giessen, a university town of 90,000 in the state of Hesse.
“Young Alternative,” the AfD’s prior youth group, was disbanded after Germany’s domestic intelligence services labeled it a “proven right-wing extremist” organization.
On Saturday morning, police reported clashes with protesters who had set up roadblocks and were “massively” affecting traffic around the city.
In one instance, protesters used a bus to block entry and exit to a roundabout, quickly creating traffic chaos. Police described an “active situation with many different locations.”
Freeways and other major thoroughfares were affected all around the city they said.
Police said officers used pepper spray after being pelted with rocks in the early morning hours.
Some groups announced their intention to keep AfD members from entering Giessen’s convention hall in order to stop them from founding the new group.
A spokesperson for the group confirmed that the start of the convention had been delayed.
The new organization, tipped to be called “Generation Germany,” is to be headed by Jean-Pascal Hohm.
Domestic intelligence services in the eastern state of Brandenburg, where Hohm serves as a state representative, say that he, too, is “confirmed right-wing extremist.”
Hesse’s Interior Minister Roman Poseck says police are preparing for a “challenging large-scale situation” in Giessen.
Several thousand police officers from all 16 German states, as well as federal police forces, are expected to be on duty Saturday.
More than 20 protests were registered with the city and organizers of the three biggest have complained that the city has “banished democratic protesters” to one side of the Lahn River and is allowing “fascists” to convene in peace on the other.
