Polish hotel cancels on Germany's far-right AfD
June 28, 2019
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) had to cancel plans for a gathering in western Poland on Friday, after the Radisson Blu Hotel in Szczecin unceremoniously nixed their reservations two hours before the meeting. The hotel said there had been a power outage.
Spokesman Christian Lüth told French news agency AFP that he believed "political reasons" were behind the decision.
"We had repeatedly confirmed the reservation," he added. "There will be legal action."
About 70 of the party's 91 representatives in parliament were due to travel to the Polish border town, including leaders Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel. Instead, the lawmakers met in the Reichstag building in Berlin.
The right-wing populists had planned to meet in Poland after their first attempt to hold a summit in the eastern state of Brandenburg was also canceled by the hotel, citing the "bad publicity" that came with hosting the AfD.
They were also forced to call off a planned event in Berlin after the European elections in May, citing threats of violence, something that has occurred several times at smaller-scale AfD events.
After rising in popularity since their 2013 inception, theanti-immigration, Islamophobic party garnered only 11 percent of the EU vote, far lower than they had been hoping for.
es/amp (AFP, dpa)
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