Leftist protesters clash with police outside far-right party conference in Germany; 125 arrested

Over 120 people were detained in the southern German town of Weinheim after protesters clashed with police outside a far-right NPD party conference, which opened on Saturday.

More than 1,000 leftist activists gathered in Weinheim to protest the party congress of the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), which has been accused of xenophobia and far-right extremism.

Police had blocked the streets near the venue of the congress, but anti-fascist protesters tried to break through the cordon and threw stones at police officers. Police responded with rubber truncheons and pepper spray.

“We resorted to rubber truncheons and pepper sprays as the attack on our colleagues was so massive,” a police spokeswoman told Spiegel Online.

She added that one police officer had been seriously injured and another had suffered a light injury. Several protesters were also inured but the number remains unclear. Police arrested a total of 125 activists.

These were the most violent clashes of their kind in Weinheim, which is hosting the NPD congress for the third year in a row.

This was not the first confrontation between German police and left-wing Anti-Fascist protesters this month. On November 7, pro-migrant activists clashed with police in Berlin where they were protesting an anti-migrant rally organized by the Eurosceptic “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) party. One police officer was slightly injured and about 40 activists arrested in that incident.

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