The Albany Gazette - German far-right outlines radical programme as protesters rally

Demonstrators shouting "No to Nazis" outside the venue in the eastern town of Riesa succeeded in delaying the start of the congress by around two hours.

Once it got underway just after 12pm (1100 GMT) the party's 600-odd delegates approved co-leader Alice Weidel as candidate for chancellor by acclamation ahead of the general election on February 23.

In a fiery speech to the hall afterwards Weidel condemned the protestors outside as "a left-wing mob" and "red-painted Nazis" before going on to present her "plan for the future" for Germany.

She said the first 100 days of a government containing the AfD would see the "total closing of Germany's borders and the turning back anyone travelling without documents" as well as "large-scale repatriations".

"I say to you quite honestly, if this must be called remigration, then let it be called remigration," she said.

- 'Windmills of shame' -

Turning to energy policy Weidel advocated a return to nuclear energy and more coal power stations, as well as relaunching the Nord Stream pipelines for Russian gas.

In keeping with the AfD's denial of climate science, Weidel also attacked efforts to promote renewable energy.

She branded wind turbines "windmills of shame" and promised to tear them all down.

The AfD is currently in second place in opinion polls, averaging 20 percent, although one survey on Saturday eagerly seized on by the party gave them 22 percent.

The conservative CDU/CSU is leading at 31 percent while Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats are fighting it out for third place with their Green coalition partners on 15 and 14 percent respectively.

Weidel in her speech bashed the CDU/CSU, branding them a "party of cheats" and saying her goal was to overtake them.

The congress caps an eventful week for Weidel, who on Thursday was hosted by Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a key Donald Trump ally, for a wide-ranging livestream on his X social media platform.

The AfD has also been buoyed by events in Austria in recent days, where the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) has been invited to try to form a government with the conservative People's Party (OeVP).

After the FPOe made history by coming first in September's general election other parties had tried to build a coalition without it, but negotiations to this end failed.

So far all of Germany's other parties, including the CSU/CDU, have ruled out working with the AfD.

- Heated debates ahead -

Outside the congress venue, protestors braved the cold to shout slogans such as "No to Nazis".

Police said they numbered at least 8,000 while organisers put the number at more than 12,000.

Among them was Julia, who declined to give her last name but said she wanted to turn out to oppose a party that represented "exclusion, discrimination and hatred".

"We want to show very clearly that we are the majority, that we are in favour of open borders and solidarity in society," she told AFP.

Earlier on Saturday demonstrators had tried to breach police cordons with protest organisers accusing the police of using violence and pepper spray.

Police said that six officers had suffered minor injuries.

Observers are expecting heated debates over some points of the AfD's programme as the party congress continues.

Those include party leadership plans to replace its Junge Alternative ("Young Alternative") youth wing, which has been classified an extremist group by intelligence services.

The plan is due to be discussed on Sunday but the leadership may struggle to convince enough delegates to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority.

(A.Johnson--TAG)