AfD youth founds state association - protests in Chemnitz

The new youth organization of the AfD, Generation Deutschland, has founded a Saxon state association. AfD city councillor Lennard Scharpe from Bautzen has been elected chairman, according to party spokesperson Andreas Harlaß. The founding meeting took place in Chemnitz. The spokesperson was unable to say how many members the Saxon branch of Generation Germany (GD) has.

The GD is the successor to the Junge Alternative (JA), which disbanded after the AfD decided to found a new youth organization with closer ties to the party. The new nationwide youth structure was launched last November at a congress in Giessen, Hesse. There had been fierce protests and clashes between demonstrators and police.

Protests against foundation in Chemnitz

Protests also formed in Chemnitz. The Chemnitz Nazifrei alliance had called for a demonstration. According to the police, up to 240 people took part. Apart from an altercation between a 19-year-old and a 24-year-old, the gathering was reportedly trouble-free.

State chapters of the new AfD Youth have already been formed in other German states, including Thuringia, Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein. A state association is to be founded in Lower Saxony at the end of February.

The Green Youth of Saxony warned against Generation Germany. It is a new edition of the former JA "with the same minds, the same ideologies and the same anti-democratic goals". The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution had classified the Junge Alternative as right-wing extremist and was monitoring it. Accordingly, the Green Youth demanded that the constitution watchdogs now also take a closer look at the new youth organization.