Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the western German city of Giessen on Saturday as the far-right Alternative for Germany’s new youth organization was set to kick off its founding convention.
Groups of protesters blocked or tried to block roads in and around the city of some 93,000 people in the early morning. Police said they used pepper spray after stones were thrown at officers at one location.
The new youth organization of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is to be set up in a meeting at Giessen’s convention center. Its predecessor, the Young Alternative — a largely autonomous group with relatively loose links to the party — was dissolved at the end of March after AfD decided to formally cut ties with it.
More in the article.
You cannot call them assholes either. Because free speech does not include verbal attacks such as insults, bullying or hate speech. Calling someone a Nazi without substantial evidence is a pretty obvious case of an insult.
It’s not perfect, though at least Germany’s free speech and human rights protections are much greater than, say, Canada’s where a simple majority could just decide to criminalize all speech by invoking a certain clause.