国际英语资讯:Spotlight: Merkels party wins commanding yet lower votes as far-right AfD to debut in parl_时事

国际英语资讯:Spotlight: Merkels party wins commanding yet lower votes as far-right AfD to debut in parl

However, Hoecke's joyful words met with protests and demonstrations against AfD shortly after.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on Berlin's Alexanderplatz on Sunday evening, bearing umbrellas to keep dry and waving anti-AfD signs to protest AfD's election result.

Later, the crowd shouted as one, "The whole of Berlin hates the AfD."

Police were monitoring the situation and prohibiting the protesters from drawing close to the building housing the AfD's party.

According to security authority, AfD supporters were cleared off the building's balcony after demonstrators on the ground threw objects in that direction.

Similar anti-AfD protests also took place on the other side of the country in Cologne. Demonstrators met in front of the west German city's central train station before marching through the streets with a banner reading "Whoever is silent, is complicit".

The two rallies were parts of a nationwide campaign dubbed "Nationalism is not an Alternative", which also saw 300 people rallying in Frankfurt, German news agency DPA reported.

Despite AfD's breakthrough, experts believed that the party's influence should not be overestimated.

Prof. Dr. Paul Nolte, a historian with Free University Berlin, told Xinhua that as SPD refused to form another grand coalition government with the CDU/CSU bloc, the AfD will not become the largest opposition party, so that their influence in the Bundestag will be restricted.