Image copyright EPA Image caption Delegates to the conference had to be escorted by police officers in riot gear

The populist, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) has rejected a bid by its co-leader to move the party closer to the mainstream.

Frauke Petry had wanted the AfD to seek coalition with other parties and reject extremist views but delegates in Cologne rejected her approach.

She has announced she will not contest general elections this year and the party must choose a replacement.

Outside the conference protesters clashed with police.

Up to 15,000 people demonstrated against the AfD's meeting, with some 4,000 officers deployed to stop them entering the hotel where is was taking place.

Two were injured in clashes, one while escorting party members. There were several reports of arrests.

Many shops were closed for the day and police helicopters were heard overhead, with some suggesting this was to monitor the protests.

About 100 people tried to break through a police line on the opposite side of the Rhine river from the conference venue, Die Welt newspaper reports (in German).

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Thousands rallied against the AfD's meeting in Cologne

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Most of the anti-AfD protest was peaceful

Outside the hotel, up to 60 people blocked access using a chain of bicycles. Police broke this up, leading to skirmishes with protesters.

It is not the first time an AfD conference has attracted demonstrations. When the party met last year in Stuttgart, hundreds of protesters were detained.

'Here to stay'

AfD co-leader and public face Frauke Petry announced earlier this week that she would not be the party's chief candidate in the September general election.

At the conference Ms Petry urged the party to reject infighting and unite behind the leadership, to prove the AfD was "here to stay".

But those attending refused even to hold a debate on her arguments that the party should become more mainstream and seek to govern in coalition rather than staying in opposition.

Fractious scenes: BBC's Jenny Hill in Cologne

Thousands of armed police officers were deployed to hold protesters back from the city centre hotel where Germany's most controversial party was holding its pre-election conference. Inside, the atmosphere was no less fractious.

The AfD, which is notorious for its fierce anti-Islam rhetoric, is slipping in the polls. The anti-immigrant platform which won it support during the refugee crisis is no longer enough to satisfy the electorate.

The party is on course to win seats in the general election but its chances of significant political success depend now on whether its members can agree on a candidate to stand against Angela Merkel and on the party's future direction.

While this weekend is officially a party conference, in truth it will be a weekend of crisis talks.

The party pushed Mrs Merkel's governing conservatives into third place in a regional election last year and hopes to build on its success by getting its first seats in the federal parliament.

Founded in 2013, it rose on a wave of opposition to Mrs Merkel's 2015 open-door policy to refugees.

However, all the mainstream parties have said they will refuse to form a coalition with the AfD.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Frauke Petry, the AfD's most-recognisable face, is due to have her fifth child

Opinion polls suggest a sharp recent drop in the party's popularity - from 15% late last year to between 7% and 11% now.

It is beset by infighting between Ms Petry's pragmatic wing and a wing that is further to the right.

The party's reputation has been dented by a local leader's comments in January that the Holocaust memorial in Berlin was a "memorial of shame".

The party has voted to expel him and he will not be allowed to attend the conference.</s>Protesters have injured a police officer while trying to block the hotel in Cologne where the nationalist Alternative for Germany party is holding a two-day convention.

Hundreds of demonstrators are trying to keep AfD party members from entering their convention centre - leading to a a massive police presence.

Around 50,000 left-wing protesters are expected and about 4,000 police officers are on the ground in Cologne to prevent a violent escalation of anti-populist rallies.

The convention takes place days after AfD's co-leader Frauke Petry, who is Germany's best-known nationalist politician, said that she won't be her party's top candidate in the September general election.

The decision appears to reflect a growing split among its leading figures.</s>Two police officers were injured and a car was set ablaze when violent protests broke out in Cologne, where the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party (AfD) is holding a convention.

Up to 15,000 demonstrators and hard-left activists gathered in the city, with around 4,000 officers, many clad in riot gear or on horseback, deployed to prevent the escalation of anti-populist rallies.

Some 600 AfD delegates are meeting to discuss policy for September's national elections, but could only enter the convention centre under heavy police protection as protesters tried to keep them out.

The two-day convention takes place days after AfD's co-leader Frauke Petry, Germany's best-known nationalist politician, said she will not be her party's top candidate in the general election – an apparent reflection of a growing split among leading party figures.

A spokesman for the Cologne police said the situation in the western German city was “very dynamic” and “fairly aggressive” in some areas.

He said police stopped about 100 protesters early on Saturday for identity checks, but they were not detained.

Broadcaster n-tv showed a group of around 50 people clashing with police on horses, and a television correspondent said police used pepper spray against some of the demonstrators.

The AfD, which rails against Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to welcome over a million migrants over the past two years, is polling between eight to 10 percent support ahead of the election.

That is enough to give the party seats in parliament for the first time, but well below peak support seen in late 2016.

In her opening speech, before which she received a standing ovation from some party members, Ms Petry signalled she was willing to make compromises on her controversial motion for the party's future strategy.

Ms Petry has upset many within the party by introducing a motion in which she said the AfD should aim to join coalitions in future and govern, instead of being a “fundamental” opposition party that only made provocative statements.

But a majority of delegates voted around midday against discussing her motion.</s>Tensions run high as thousands descend on Cologne to protest against conference of far-right, anti-immigration party.

More than 50,000 demonstrators are expected to descend on Cologne on Saturday to protest the far-right populist, anti-immigration politics of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), as the party holds one of the most important conferences in its four-year history.

The AfD is hoping to enter parliament for the first time in Germany's general election on 24 September.

About 4,000 police officers have been deployed to avert clashes on the city's streets between anti-AfD protesters and party supporters. Scuffles broke out early on Saturday between police and anti-AfD demonstrators.

 

Around 600 AfD delegates are expected to attend the conference. The central city hotel, where the conference is being held, has made arrangements to allow staff members to stay overnight in the hotel to minimise problems with gaining entry to the venue.

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Hannelore Kraft, state premier of North-Rhine Westphalia, where the conference is taking place, and Green party leader Cem Ozdemir are due to speak at an anti-AfD rally on Saturday.

The two-day conference comes just days after AfD leader Frauke Petry ruled herself out of spearheading the party's campaign for the September election.

Her dramatic move brought to a head a long-running internal party power struggle, which pitted Petry against the party's right-wingers.

The AfD delegates attending the conference are likely to sign off on the party's election manifesto but will have to set aside months of tensions and turmoil to agree on a team to lead the campaign.

Petry has also placed a controversial motion before congress calling on the party to adopt a realpolitik approach, with the aim of transforming the AfD into a mainstream party open to coalition.

Founded in 2013 on a eurosceptic platform, the AfD has railed against Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to let in more than one million refugees to Germany since 2015.

In May 2016 AfD backed an election manifesto that says Islam is not compatible with the German constitution and the party also supported a call to ban minarets on mosques and the full-face veil.

AfD made huge gains in a state election in September, receiving about 21 percent of votes in the eastern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern region, beating Merkel's party to take second place.

Rising anti-refugee rhetoric has been matched by rising violence against refugees in Germany.

The interior minister said in February that Germany recorded more than 3,500 attacks in total against refugees, migrants and their shelters in 2016, amounting to nearly 10 acts of violence a day: a sharp rise on previous years.

But AfD's populairity has declined as the number of new refugee arrivals has dwindled, mainly due to border closures on the Balkan overland route and an EU deal with Turkey to stem the flow.

All of Germany's mainstream parties have ruled out working with the AfD should it clear the five-percent hurdle to representation in the election. 

 

Opinion polls show the AfD at between seven and 11 percent, a steep drop from the 15 percent support it drew only late last year.

Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan, reporting from Cologne, said it was questionnable whether the AfD would make it into parliament in the upcoming elections.

"In recent months they've had internal divisions, which have hamstrung them a little bit," said Brennan. "And the other thing is that, as they have grown, opposition against them has also grown."

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Brennan said that, while the party as a whole has generally tried to avoid controversy, many individual AfD members have publicly taken positions that many find offensive.

"The feeling among many critics is that individuals within the party are essentially neo-Nazis, and clearly in Germany that's a very sensitive issue," Brennan said.

Some scuffles had already occurred on Saturday between protesters and police - most of whom are in full riot gear - as tensions were high in the city, which is regarded as widely liberal.

"People are very angry that the AfD are here, they are determined to try to stop delegates reaching the hotel. It's going to be a very tense day," Brannan said.</s>There has been at least one arrest.

Two police officers were injured in the clashes, one while escorting party members.

Left-wing protesters were demonstrating against the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is holding a conference in the city.

Protesters and police have clashed in Cologne at a demonstration outside a nationalist convention.

At least 4,000 police officers were trying to control the situation and keep protesters away from the hotel where the meeting is taking place.

It is thought around 10,000 protesters turned up to demonstrate.

The AfD is meeting to choose a new co-leader ahead of the election later this year.

The convention takes place days after AfD's co-leader Frauke Petry, who is Germany's best-known nationalist politician, said that she won't be her party's top candidate in the September general election, a decision that appears to reflect a growing split among its leading figures.

Support for the party, which attacks Chancellor Angela Merkel for having allowed more than a million migrants into Germany in the last two years, has tumbled in recent months.</s>Thousands of leftist demonstrators have tried to disrupt a gathering of Alternative for Germany (AfD), the rightwing populist party already riven by festering internal rivalries five months before the country’s general election.



About 50,000 demonstrators were expected to mobilise during the two-day AfD party congress in the western city of Cologne, with 4,000 police officers dispatched to keep the peace.

But as the 600 delegates began filing into the congress venue, a hotel in the city centre, demonstrators attempted to block them from passing through security barricades, leading to scuffles with authorities.

One police officer suffered a facial injury, leading to the arrest of a male protester.

The AfD, now represented in 11 of Germany’s 16 states, aims to sign off on a campaign strategy that it hopes will pave the way for the party to enter the national parliament for the first time in its four-year history.

After weeks of bitter infighting, co-leader Frauke Petry said on Wednesday that she would not seek to lead the AfD’s campaign. The news left the party reeling and set the stage for a showdown between populist and more radical, hard-right forces.

“[Petry] has been unable to stop the AfD, which began as a party of euro critics, from becoming more and more a catch-all for racists, rightwing nationalists and the far right,” Cologne’s daily Stadt-Anzeiger said. “The fight within the AfD rages on.”

Founded in 2013 on a Eurosceptic platform, the AfD seized on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to let in more than a million asylum seekers since 2015, transforming the German political landscape.

But its fortunes have declined as the number of new arrivals has dwindled, and all of Germany’s mainstream parties have ruled out working with it should it clear the 5% hurdle to representation in the 24 September election.

Opinion polls show the AfD’s popularity at between 7-11%, a steep drop from the 15% support it drew only late last year.

Merkel is seeking a fourth term after nearly 12 years in power and her conservative Christian Democrats are currently leading the polls.

The telegenic Petry, a 41-year-old chemist who is pregnant with her fifth child, has aligned herself with kindred spirits across Europe, including far-right firebrand Marine Le Pen, one of the frontrunners for the first round of French elections on Sunday.



But given the long shadow still cast by Germany’s Nazi past, Petry has argued the AfD must make itself more palatable with a more moderate “middle-class” platform she will put to a vote at the congress.

The stated goal is to become Germany’s ruling party by 2021.

Denouncing “provocations” by party officials, Petry has called for the ousting of an AfD state leader, Björn Höcke, who in January sparked outrage by slamming Berlin’s vast Holocaust memorial as a “monument of shame”.

Although Höcke has been barred from attending the congress, some delegates have said they will put forward a motion to keep him in the party.

Petry’s chief rival, 76-year-old Alexander Gauland, a hardline defector from Merkel’s CDU, has said he would back the initiative.

Analysts say the vast majority of the AfD’s core supporters are far to the right of the political spectrum. However they say there is little appetite among most German voters for radical change, particularly after the victories of Donald Trump in the United States and the Brexit camp in Britain.</s>BERLIN (AP) - Protesters have injured one police officer while trying to block the hotel in Cologne where the nationalist Alternative for Germany party is holding a two-day convention.

The German news agency dpa reported Saturday that AfD party members could enter their convention center only with massive police protection because hundreds of demonstrators tried to keep them out.

Around 50,000 left-wing protesters are expected and about 4,000 police officers are on the ground in Cologne to prevent a violent escalation of anti-populist rallies.

The convention takes place days after AfD's co-leader Frauke Petry, who is Germany's best-known nationalist politician, said that she won't be her party's top candidate in the September general election, a decision that appears to reflect a growing split among its leading figures.</s>The people rallied against the meeting of the AFD party. Two policemen were injured in the clashes with protesters, Bild newspaper reported.

One of the protesters attacked a deputy of the AFD. "A person in a mask struck with a wooden stick. The policeman stood between [the attacker and the lawmaker] and was wounded," a police representative told the German media outlet.

Four thousand law enforcers have been at the site of the protest; some have been detained. The security measures are being made amid the possibility of unrest in the city that could be provoked by AfD's opponents in Cologne.

According to Bild, up to 50,000 may take part in the rally.

Earlier it was reported that Cologne authorities have decided to establish a no-fly zone over the city center ahead of a meeting of the AFD, to be on April 22-23.

Nevertheless, support for the party has decreased recently according to polls. A survey conducted by Forsa showed on Wednesday that AfD would be still able to pass the threshold of 5 percent making it eligible to enter Germany's parliament. According to the poll, a total of 8 percent of German citizens would choose the party if elections took place on Sunday, in comparison to 10 percent in February.

Germans are expected to vote on September 24 in a general election that will elect a new government and chancellor. This will be the second federal election the populist AfD will take place in. In 2013, the party gained only 4.7 percent of votes, failing to win seats in the Bundestag</s>Protesters have marched on the streets in Cologne to show their opposition to Germany's AfD party, as it met for talks ahead of September's election.

COLOGNE, GERMANY—Divisions among German nationalists erupted Saturday as delegates from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party rejected an appeal by one of their leaders to seek a pragmatic political path instead of turning into a “fundamental opposition” party.

While tensions brewed inside the AfD party convention in the western German city of Cologne, outside the hotel hundreds of left-wing demonstrators tried to block about 600 AfD party members from entering. The delegates needed massive police protection to get into the convention, and protesters injured one police officer Saturday morning while trying to block the hotel.

Authorities had 4,000 police officers on the ground to prevent a violent escalation of anti-populist rallies by an expected 50,000 left-wing protesters.

Speaking before AfD members, nationalist politician Frauke Petry said the party needed to set the course for a “spiritual-moral change” in Germany and the rest of Europe. But a majority of the delegates rejected a vote on the party’s future path that she had suggested.

In comparison, Joerg Meuthen, a more far-right party leader who is one of Petry’s rivals, was cheered strongly when he lashed out at German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government’s migration policy.</s>COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — Germany's best-known nationalist politician on Saturday called on members of the Alternative for Germany to endorse her more pragmatic course instead of turning the party into a "fundamental opposition," an appeal that appeared to reveal the growing split among the populist party's leading figures.

Speaking in front of AfD members at a party convention in the western city of Cologne, Frauke Petry said that party needs to set the course for a "spiritual-moral change" in Germany and the rest of Europe.

The convention takes place days after Petry said that she won't be her party's top candidate in the September general election, a move seen by many as a consequence to the party leaders' infighting about the future direction of the AfD.

The convention in a Cologne hotel was overshadowed by massive left-wing demonstrations. Around 50,000 left-wing protesters were expected and about 4,000 police officers were on the ground in Cologne to prevent a violent escalation of anti-populist rallies.

Protesters injured one police officer Saturday morning while trying to block the hotel where about 600 AfD members were gathered.

The German news agency dpa reported that AfD party members could enter their convention center only with massive police protection because hundreds of demonstrators tried to keep them out.

Petry became co-leader of the four-year-old AfD in 2015. She ousted fellow founder Bernd Lucke, an economics professor, shifting the party's focus from economic issues to immigration and Islam.

AfD's poll ratings soared with the influx of migrants to Germany in late 2015 and early 2016. However, they have sagged in recent months as the issue faded from headlines and the party became increasingly mired in infighting with Petry and her husband, Marcus Pretzell, on one side, and other senior figures even further on the right.

Petry, 41, also irked some rivals by leading an effort to expel Bjoern Hoecke, AfD's regional leader in eastern Thuringia state, after he suggested that Germany stop acknowledging and atoning for its Nazi past.

With her refusal to become the AfD's top candidate on Wednesday, Petry ended months of speculation about her ambitions to lead the party's effort to enter the national parliament for the first time in Germany's Sept. 24 election.

She did not, however, suggest any plans to step down as party chairwoman.

German political parties choose lead candidates for elections who generally dominate their campaigns and, in the case of bigger parties, compete to become chancellor.
Thousands of German riot police are deployed to control protesters opposing the Alternative for Germany at the party's conference in Cologne.