Germany’s far right AfD holds congress

BERLIN: Around 600 delegates from Germany’s far right AfD gathered on Saturday for a congress that the authorities have warned could become a coronavirus hotspot, as the party increasingly aligns itself with militants protesting anti-Covid restrictions.

Alternative for Germany co-leader Tino Chrupalla opened the event by attacking the "state of emergency" policy introduced by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to tackle the health crisis.

"Lives have been broken, there’s a wave of bankruptcies... lots of people have lost their jobs," he told the congress being held in a vast hall in a former nuclear plant in the western city of Kalkar.

To win approval for the huge gathering at a time when Germans are asked to limit their contacts to just two households at a time, the AfD had to sign up to stringent rules including compulsory mask wearing and social distancing.