According to new police reports, 53 officers in Offenburg were injured during a demonstration against the AfD state party conference in Baden-Württemberg on Saturday. Some suffered bruises and abrasions from being punched and kicked. Other police officers suffered respiratory irritation because they were sprayed with a fire extinguisher and because masking material, clothing and pyrotechnics burned, as the police in Offenburg announced on Sunday.
17 officers were off duty after the operation, the police reported, updating their information from Saturday. Two demonstrators were also injured. “So far, 20 investigations have been initiated against several participants in the demonstration,” it said in a statement. There is an investigative team that identifies possible criminals and processes the procedures.
The AfD Baden-Württemberg met on Saturday for their state party conference in the Baden town in the Ortenau district. The meeting should end on Sunday.
As the police reported late in the evening, they determined the identity of over 400 participants. In more than 200 cases there was a place reference. Several suspects have been identified. The allegations are serious breach of the peace, resistance to law enforcement officials and bodily harm. Participants in the demonstration had rejected any offers of cooperation, the police said. There is now a special investigative team. During the riots, a person is said to have sprayed several police officers with a fire extinguisher.
As a dpa reporter reported, officials used batons against demonstrators to stop the protest march. At the same time, the participants were asked via loudspeaker to remain peaceful. A red banner read: “No place for the AfD.”
According to the police, around 1,200 people had previously demonstrated peacefully in the city center and at the exhibition center where the AfD meeting took place. At a rally, the state chairwoman of the GEW education union, Monika Stein, described the AfD as a “danger to democracy”. Spokeswoman Jenny Holzer from the alliance “Stand up against racism Offenburg” said on request: “It was a peaceful and colorful demonstration.” She spoke of around 1400 to 1500 participants.
The AfD in the southwest postponed a major change in the statutes to the upcoming party congress due to internal resistance. This should take place in the coming year, as co-state chairman Emil Sänze said in passing. The project for the new statutes involves, among other things, introducing an additional control body in the state association. The topic caused sometimes chaotic debates at the meeting. Sänze admitted that not all rifts had been overcome in the party. For years, a power struggle raged among the AfD MPs in the south-west between moderate forces and supporters of the right-wing fringe.
Since July, the AfD state association has been observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected right-wing extremist. The secret service can thus examine the right-wing populists more closely and, under strict conditions, observe members, monitor phones and recruit informants.
The party congress adopted several resolutions, including on the Ukraine war. “We demand the immediate cessation of all arms sales to the warring parties,” reads the resolution presented at the meeting. The goal is a “just peace” that takes into account the security interests of Ukraine and Russia. At the federal level, AfD co-head of the parliamentary group Tino Chrupalla had already called for German arms deliveries to stay out of the war.
The other AfD co-chairman Markus Frohnmaier said they advocate sticking to nuclear power plants. According to a decision by the federal government, the last three nuclear power plants in Germany should continue to operate until April 15th. One must also discuss building new nuclear power plants in the southwest and in Germany, Frohnmaier demanded. “Technology has advanced a lot.”
