GIESSEN, Germany — A meeting to launch the new youth wing of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was delayed Saturday for more than two hours as protestors blocked access to the venue.

 

Thousands of anti-AfD protestors began descending on the central town of Giessen near Frankfurt from the early morning, with police also out in force.

 

The meeting had been due to start at 1000 local time (0900 GMT) but only got underway after 1200, accompanied by audible whistles, drums and chants from the protestors outside.

 

One of the protest organisations, "Resist", said that it blocked several routes towards the meeting and had gathered 15,000 people.

 

The party's co-leader Alice Weidel condemned those who had caused "chaos" outside and said those gathered in the hall were "the new generations of the party".

 

The anti-immigration AfD became Germany's main opposition at February's general election in which it won a record score of over 20 percent and hopes to make further gains at state elections next year in its eastern heartlands.

 

The new youth organisation will replace the Junge Alternative (JA), which was classified as an extremist group by intelligence services and then disbanded by the AfD earlier this year, pre-empting a possible ban.

 

The JA had frequently been involved in controversies, including its members using racist chants and holding meetings with neo-Nazis.

 

The party's other co-leader Tino Chrupalla admitted in his speech to the hall that the party had "to learn from past mistakes".

 

Some of those active in the party's previous youth activities had "banged their heads against the wall rather than getting their foot in the door," he said.

 

'Something has to change'

 

The new AfD youth wing is expected to be called "Generation Deutschland" or "Youth Germania" and members will decide whether to adopt a suggested logo bearing an eagle, a cross and Germany's national colours black, red and gold.

 

Its likely first leader will be Jean-Pascal Hohm, 28, an AfD state lawmaker from eastern Germany with long-standing ties to various far-right and ethno-nationalist groups.

 

Inside the hall, stalls were set up offering the attendees -- overwhelmingly men -- merchandise including protein powder and mugs and T-shirts bearing images of AfD leaders.

 

Kevin Potthast, a 34-year-old electrician active in local AfD politics, said he came to the meeting because "the country is in a bad way and something has to change".

 

"It's important to get young people involved, as they are the future," he said.

 

One of the counter-protestors in the streets outside, 28-year-old Irina Gildt, told AFP that she felt it was important to demonstrate in favour of diversity and not to be intimidated "by fear or by hatred".

 

"That's worth getting up early for," she said.

 

Far-right milieu

 

In May, Germany's domestic security service declared the AfD as a whole a "right-wing extremist" organisation, fuelling calls to ban it.

 

The party has challenged the designation in the courts.

 

Political observers expect the new youth wing to be at least as radical as the JA.

 

Fabian Virchow, of the University of Duesseldorf, said that "the leading figures come from a far-right milieu, in which former activists from the Identitarian Movement, fraternities, neo-Nazism and ethno-nationalist groups come together".

 

While the JA operated as a registered association relatively free of the parent party, its successor is set to be more closely integrated into the AfD and subject to its disciplinary structures.

 

Stefan Marschall, of Heinrich Heine University in Duesseldorf, said the new set-up "gives the party leadership control over this branch of the organisation and thus helps it to present a more unified front.

 

"However, this comes at the cost of the party no longer being able to completely credibly distance itself from the youth organisation should it adopt problematic positions."