Germany AfD meeting: Hundreds of protesters detained outside venue
Reuters
German police have detained about 400 left-wing demonstrators who were trying to prevent people entering a right-wing party conference in Stuttgart.
About 1,000 officers were involved in the operation to keep the two sides apart, as the protesters blocked roads, burned tyres and threw firecrackers.
The Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party is expected to re-brand itself as openly anti-Islamic during the meeting.
The AfD wants to ban the burqa and outlaw minarets in Germany.
A police spokesman said protesters threw stones at officers and let off fireworks in their direction.
Riot police used tear gas, pepper spray and a water cannon to keep the protesters back.
Despite the protest, the conference began as planned.
One demonstrator, Dominik Schmeiser, said: "We are united by our conviction that we cannot let the AfD go unchallenged, and that it is a party which is not only racist, but which is engaged in the politics of exclusion and social division.
"We will not allow ourselves to be divided and we stand together for a compassionate society."
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Nearly 2,000 members of the AfD are registered to attend the conference. The party achieved gains in all three states taking part in regional elections last month, claiming almost a quarter of the vote in the relatively poor eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
It had campaigned against what it called Chancellor Angela Merkel's "catastrophic" decision to accept a million migrants and refugees in 2015.
In Saturday's conference, the party must agree a manifesto ahead of next year's general election.
Proposals include withdrawal from the euro and the reintroduction of conscription, but there are splits within the party, including between its less hardline wing and the leadership.
Speaking to the conference, deputy Alexander Gauland said the AfD was a party that "has arrived in society and which is here to stay, whether the consensus parties like it or not".
Before the meeting, police encircled groups of demonstrators in a technique known as kettling. Some protesters were seen being dragged away, as others chanted "Shame on you" at officers.
March state election results
More on AfD
- Founded in 2013 by Bernd Lucke, Alexander Gauland and Konrad Adam to oppose German-backed bailouts for poorer southern European countries
- Mr Lucke, seen as a moderate, wanted Germany out of the euro but his colleagues were unhappy that he wanted to focus exclusively on euro-related issues
- He quit the party in early July 2015, arguing it was becoming increasingly xenophobic
- Right-winger Frauke Petry replaced him as party leader
- It became the first anti-euro party to win seats in a German regional parliament, receiving almost 10% of the vote in the eastern German state of Saxony in 2014, and went on to win seats in four other states' parliaments in 2014 and 2015
- The party had seven MEPs elected in the 2014 European elections (including Mr Lucke), but only two remain party members
- AfD was part of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, like the UK's Conservatives, but one of its two MEPs has recently been expelled from the group over comments on shooting refugees
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