As the head of a far-right extremist group praises the return of a “German-friendly American” across the Atlantic, a salvo of boos erupts from a crowd just across the Erfurt city square.
Bjorn Höcke, the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) most extreme faction, in the central German region of Thuringia, doesn’t turn his head. The short distance between him and them is insurmountable - and there’s a wall of police vans in the way.
In front of him, a man in a Donald Trump 2024 hat cheers. A man at the back waves a flag that embraces the national colours of Germany and Russia. He would later describe Vladimir Putin as a “good guy”.
“We are in this constellation … that has a deep love for its own,” says Mr Höcke, who was recently found guilty of knowingly using Nazi slogans. “And now, with Trump and [Vladimir] Putin together, we will continue this historic mission of Germany that has been put off for decades. We will be a bridge between the West and East, dear friends.”
The applause from the AfD camp jars against the cries of “Nazis out” from the other side of the square.
In less than 24 hours, Germany will go to the polls for nationwide elections. The popularity of the AfD, led by Alice Wiedel but in many ways guided by Mr Höcke, is swelling.
Around a fifth of the population is expected to vote for them, good enough for second place overall behind the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), expected to win a little under a third of the vote.
In Thuringia, which sits in the middle of the spine dividing Germany, the AfD are the most popular. That their branch was designated a far right extremist organisation in 2021 isn’t putting people off, nor is the controversy Mr Höcke has frequently courted since creating the branch the same month the AfD was founded in 2013.
The AfD’s popularity across the country has been driven by concerns over immigration, which though it declined last year is worrying a significant portion of Germans because of a spate of terror attacks. There have been three in the last three months after the coalition government collapsed and a snap election was called. At least nine people have been killed, including two children, and dozens injured.
Jorn Kaulhausen, 63, says he is an AfD supporter because he “cannot accept anymore” these attacks. “Our lives have changed,” he says, from the back of the rally in Erfurt. “A lot of people try to attack us with knives.”
Caroline Litchtenheld, 22, agrees. She has spent the last two years as the head of the Young Alternative for Germany in Thuringia. “You see all this death and of course you have to say the safety in Germany is decreasing,” she says. Germany must have a policy of “remigration”, she adds.
It is the AfD’s main policy and it is a euphemism for mass deportation. The phrase can also be found in Mr Höcke’s book, Never Twice in the Same River, published in 2018, in which he called for a “large-scale remigration project” to reverse the effects of former chancellor Angela Merkel opening up the German borders to a million refugees in 2015 during the migrant crisis.
On the other side of Erfurt’s square, counterprotester Regina, 54, says this is clear evidence of the AfD’s racism and fascism reminiscent of the Nazi Party. “It is not just foreigners that are criminals,” he says. “But if a foreigner kills a German, the AfD are happy about it because they can use it for their political propaganda.”
A spokesperson for the counter-demonstration then says they are there every time the AfD holds a rally because “we don’t want to give them our city”, nodding her head towards the other side of the square.
The CDU has vowed to be tougher on migration to address fears nonetheless, even accepting help from the AfD to pass a motion calling for a tougher stance on immigration.
But the expected future chancellor and CDU leader, Friedrich Merz, says he will respect the longstanding policy of not inviting the far-right into government to form a coalition.
This policy has been in place since the fall of the democratically-elected Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich and the death of millions during World War II and the Holocaust.
Here is where Mr Trump’s administration has grown frustrated.
US vice president JD Vance said last week during a speech in Munich that what he called the censorship of the right was a greater threat to European democracy than Russia. The comments infuriated the German establishment, who said it was an affront to democracy.
Tech billionaire turned key Trump aide Elon Musk has fully endorsed the AfD, describing them as the “only party that can save Europe”. He has promoted them relentlessly on his social media platform X, bringing them in from the cold of the less-popular Russian site Telegram. Ms Wiedel is by far the most popular politician in Germany as a result.
Mr Trump himself, meanwhile, invited the AfD to his inauguration. And when he decided to have a call with Mr Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, a move that left Ukrainians and their European supporters worried that a deal could be done over their heads that threatens the continent’s security and rewards Russian aggression, the traditionally pro-Russian AfD were equally happy.
Stefan Möller, a member of the Thuringian State Parliament for the AfD and the second speaker behind Mr Höcke in Erfurt, says they are “very grateful” to Mr Trump’s administration for their interventions both in German politics and in European geopolitics.
“I am a big fan of them,” he says. “The politics, or political change, for which these three people [Mr Trump, Mr Musk and Mr Vance] are standing in America is exactly the political change that we are also planning in Germany.
“It is a refocus of politics on the normal population and their interests. And we want to achieve that, insofar as we are also involved.”
On the issue of relations with Russia and Mr Putin, he adds: “I think that [Russia] has to be an important partner for Europe and also for Germany so that a peaceful relationship can be based on mutual understanding.”
For all the bonds being done with like-minded individuals abroad, however, there is no peaceful relationship between the citizens of Erfurt on either side of the square.
As the counter protesters were escorted to their rally at the start of the day, some of the stragglers from the AfD were caught up in the crowd.
A woman holding an anti-fascist placard collided with a man in a blue AfD hat. As they turned to face one another, she put out her middle finger and he burst out laughing. Then they quickly sped off. Neither had spoken a word.
