Essen, Germany - The far-right AfD declared its ambition to rise to power in Germany as its party congress kicked off Saturday with clashes between hooded demonstrators and police, just weeks after it scored record EU election results. About 1,000 police were deployed in the western city of Essen, where demonstration organisers said 50,000 protestors marched towards the congress. The police have not yet provided figures. “We want to govern, first in the east (of Germany), then in the west, then at federal level,” Tino Chrupalla, co-president of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), told around 600 delegates of the two-day meeting which start half an hour late due to street blockades. Police added that they had used pepper spray and batons, and eleven officers were injured. “Several disruptive violent actions occurred in the Ruettenscheld quarter. Demonstrators, some of them hooded, attacked security forces. Several arrests were made,” the police of North Westphalia, where Essen is located, said on X, formerly Twitter. A top regional official had warned that “potentially violent far-left troublemakers” could be among the protesters. In early June the Alternative for Germany (AfD) notched up its best European Union election result since its creation in 2013, winning 16 percent of the vote to take second place.