Attendees mingle at the AfD’s closed campaign event at Schloss Burgau in Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, on Sept. 5.
Photographer: Ben Kilb/BloombergGerman Far Right Seeks Breakthrough in Vote in Merz’s Home State
In the first electoral test for the ruling coalition, the AfD is expected to gain in Germany’s most-populous region.
On the edge of the town of Düren in Germany’s industrial heartland, roughly 200 people whistled and shouted at the occupants of Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Tesla cars as they streamed past toward the castle of Schloss Burgau.
Clad mainly in hoodies and flannels, the activists had come to disrupt a closed-door rally of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, but had few chances of overcoming well-equipped police, private security and a medieval moat. As the well-dressed supporters of the nationalist party arrived at the festivities, they looked very much like the insiders they aim to become.