Protesters gathered in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday and Saturday, waving banners and sticking ‘Nazis out’ messages on brooms, sweeping as they marched.

“We stand for a cosmopolitan Magdeburg, Germany and Europe,” stated the Omas gegen Rechts (Grannies against the far-right) group.

Nazis auskehren in #Magdeburg. Solidarischer Protest gegen den #afd Bundesparteitag. pic.twitter.com/BIs0rYE9oM

— SPD Sachsen-Anhalt (@SPD_LSA) July 29, 2023

As around 600 delegates of the AfD party gathered to choose its candidates for next year’s European parliamentary elections, protesters outside shouted, “Nationalism out of our heads”.

The group Solidarisches Magdeburg (Magdeburg in Solidarity), the national alliance Aufstehen gegen Rassismus (Stand up against racism), the Nazi victims’ association known as VVN-BdA and members of the trade unions joined the elderly demonstrators.

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: Are far-right sentiments growing in eastern Germany?

Heide, a member of the Omas gegen Rechts, told reporters, “The AfD, they are a Nazi party and we’re fighting against them.”

“I lived to see the end of the war. That’s enough for me,” she added.

Jan Renner, spokesperson for the Solidarisches Magdeburg alliance, said, “The AfD is not interested in a peaceful Europe and international cooperation, it pursues a radical nationalist course in which Germany should always come first.

“We’ve had that in this country before and we don’t need it again.”

As the far-right political group gains popularity, members deny it’s a Nazi party, reported Reuters.

The AfD is currently polling at 20.5 percent, in second place behind the opposition conservatives’ 25 percent, according to the latest data.

READ MORE: German far right says ‘ready for more’ after poll surge

Following the AfD’s first win for a district leader last month, the party’s head Alice Weidel told Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Saturday, “Germany has realised that the right is the future,” adding that, “The voices are getting louder”.

The party envisages Europe being made up of “sovereign nation-states instead of an EU superstate” and it wants “free citizens instead of paternalism and bureaucratic control.”