POLICE clashed with tens of thousands of protesters in Essen on Saturday as they demonstrated against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD’s) party conference.

Officers used pepper spray and truncheons as they fought back crowds seeking to break through security cordons to access the venue, while other anti-fascists tried to block roads to prevent delegates getting in.

While most demonstrators were peaceful, North Rhine-Westphalia Police said some had attacked officers, two of whom had been hospitalised.

But the mood inside the hall was confident, delegates overwhelmingly re-electing co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla for another two years at the helm and celebrating June 9’s European elections, in which the AfD came second across Germany with 15.9 per cent, trailing the Christian Democrats but ahead of the Social Democrats of current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Mr Chrupalla said the results would have been even stronger had “unfair and disproportionate” press coverage not focused on scandals including an investigation into their lead candidate, Maximilian Krah, over allegations he received money from Russia and China, and his withdrawal from campaigning after saying not all agents of the Nazi SS were criminals, remarks that prompted the AfD’s expulsion from the far-right Identity and Democracy bloc in the European Parliament.

Ms Weidel declared that “we are here and we will stay,” pledging to “tear down the unspeakable firewalls” between the AfD and other parties, meaning the refusal of others to agree coalition deals with it at state or federal level.

The AfD reported its membership has grown 60 per cent in the last 18 months and is approaching 50,000.