ESSEN, Germany: Clashes between hooded demonstrators and police on Saturday marked the start of a party congress of Germany’s far-right AfD, weeks after it scored record EU election results despite multiple scandals.
About 1,000 police deployed in the western city of Essen as around 600 delegates began a two-day meeting with authorities expecting up to 80,000 people to join demonstrations.
“Several disruptive violent actions occurred in the Ruettenscheld quarter. Demonstrators, some of them hooded, attacked security forces. Several arrests were made,” the police of North Westphalia, where Essen is located, said on X.
A top regional official had warned that “potentially violent far-left troublemakers” could be among the protesters.
“We are here and we will stay,” said AfD co-president Alice Weidel, opening the congress and drawing sustained applause.
“We have the right like all political parties — to hold a congress,” she added.
Adding to the security forces’ headache is the Euro 2024 football tournament, with the last 16 clash between hosts Germany and Denmark taking place Saturday in Dortmund — not far from Essen.
In early June the Alternative for Germany (AfD) notched up its best European Union election result since its creation in 2013, winning 16 percent of the vote to take second place.
It was behind the main conservative CDU-CSU opposition bloc but ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), which is in power at the head of a troubled three-party coalition.
Buoyed by a surge in immigration and a weak performance by Europe’s top economy, the party hit as high as 22 percent in opinion polls in January.
However their support faltered amid a welter of scandals that mainly implicated their top EU election candidate, Maximilian Krah.
“I believe that the party has learnt a lot in recent months and will be very careful when we put forward leading candidates in the future,” party co-president Weidel, who is standing for re-election, told the Politico news outlet Thursday.
Krah initially faced allegations of suspicious links to Russia and China.
He then sparked widespread anger by telling an Italian newspaper that not every member of the Nazis’ notorious SS was “automatically a criminal.”
The comments prompted the AfD’s expulsion from its far-right group, Identity and Democracy (ID), in the European Parliament, in which France’s National Rally (RN) and Italy’s League had been its partners.
While the AfD has sought to shift the blame for all its recent woes onto Krah, there were signs of problems even before.
The RN had already distanced itself from the AfD after reports emerged in January that the German party had discussed the expulsion of immigrants and “non-assimilated” citizens at a meeting with extremists.
The reports caused shock in Germany and triggered weeks of mass protests.
Following the EU polls, the AfD ejected Krah from the delegation it sends to Brussels but the ID group does not seem ready to re-admit them, leaving the party searching for new partners.
At the congress, delegates will be asked to vote on a motion proposing an end to the practice of having two party co-presidents.
Instead, there will be just one president alongside a general secretary.
If the motion is approved, then Tino Chrupalla — the party’s second co-president alongside Weidel — could lose his position, German media have reported.
He has been highly critical of Krah, meaning he could be targeted by the disgraced politician’s supporters.
Both Chrupalla and Weidel have backed introducing the post of secretary general as they believe it could help professionalize the AfD ahead of Germany’s 2025 parliamentary elections.
The congress comes ahead of three key elections in September in states that once formed part of communist East Germany, and where the AfD has been topping opinion polls.
Clashes, arrests mark start of German far-right AfD congress
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Clashes, arrests mark start of German far-right AfD congress
- Around 600 AfD delegates began a two-day meeting with authorities expecting up to 80,000 people to join demonstrations
- AfD notched up its best EU election result since its creation in 2013, winning 16% of the vote to take second place
Geoeconomic confrontation tops global risks in 2026: WEF report
- Also armed conflict, extreme climate, public polarization, AI
- None ‘a foregone conclusion,’ says WEF’s MD Saadia Zahidi
DUBAI: Geoeconomic confrontation has emerged as the top global risk this year, followed by state-based armed conflict, according to a new World Economic Forum report.
The Global Risks Report 2026, released on Wednesday, found that both risks climbed eight places year-on-year, underscoring a sharp deterioration in the global outlook amid increased international competition.
The top five risks are geoeconomic confrontation (18 percent of respondents), state-based armed conflict (14 percent), extreme weather events (8 percent), societal polarization (7 percent) and misinformation and disinformation (7 percent).
The WEF’s Managing Director Saadia Zahidi said the report “offers an early warning system as the age of competition compounds global risks — from geoeconomic confrontation to unchecked technology to rising debt — and changes our collective capacity to address them.
“But none of these risks are a foregone conclusion.”
The report assesses risks across three timeframes: immediate (2026); short-to-medium term (next two years); and long term (next 10 years).
Economic risks show the largest overall increase in the two-year outlook, with both economic downturn and inflation jumping eight positions.
Misinformation and disinformation rank fifth this year but rise to second place in the two-year outlook and fourth over the 10-year horizon.
The report suggests this reflects growing anxiety around the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence, with adverse outcomes linked to AI surging from 30th place in the two-year timeframe to fifth in the 10-year outlook.
Uncertainty dominates the global risk outlook, according to the report.
Surveyed leaders and experts view both the short- and long-term outlook negatively, with 50 percent expecting a turbulent or stormy global environment over the next two years, rising to 57 percent over the next decade.
A further 40 percent and 32 percent, respectively, describe the outlook as unsettled across the two- and 10-year timeframes, while just 1 percent anticipate a calm global outlook in either period.
Environmental risks ease slightly in the short-term rankings. Extreme weather fell from second to fourth place and pollution from sixth to ninth. Meanwhile, critical changes to Earth systems and biodiversity loss dropped seven and five positions, respectively.
However, over the next decade, environmental threats re-emerge as the most severe, with extreme weather, biodiversity loss, and critical changes to Earth systems topping the global risk rankings.
Looking ahead over the next decade, around 75 percent of respondents anticipate a turbulent or stormy environmental outlook, making it the most pessimistic assessment across all risk categories.
Zahidi said that “the challenges highlighted in the report underscore both the scale of the potential perils we face and our shared responsibility to shape what comes next.”
Despite the gloomy outlook, Zahidi signaled a positive shift in global cooperation.
“It is also clear that new forms of global cooperation are already unfolding even amid competition, and the global economy is demonstrating resilience in the face of uncertainty.”
Now in its 21st year, the Global Risks Report highlights a core message: global risks cannot be managed without cooperation.
As competition intensifies, rebuilding trust and new forms of collaboration will be critical, with the report stressing that today’s decisions will shape future outcomes.
The report was released ahead of WEF’s annual meeting, which will be held in Davos from Jan. 19 to 23.
