Around 300 demonstrators blocked entrances and shouted slogans such as “Nazis raus” when Berlin AfD lawmakers Thorsten Weiß and Alexander Bertram toured Görlitzer Park on Tuesday, forcing police to escort the pair through alternative routes. The police reported two arrests, including one individual accused of spitting at a legislator, and said minor scuffles broke out as officers pushed back the crowd. Weiß and Bertram, both deputy chairs of the AfD group in the city’s House of Representatives, had announced the walk-through to inspect crime, cleanliness and vegetation in the 14-hectare park and to present a position paper titled “Görlitzer Park – Schandfleck eines kapitulierenden Staates.” Their visit was published in advance on social-media channels mobilising counter-protests under the banner “Gegen rechte Hetze.” The confrontation comes one week after construction began on a perimeter fence that will allow the city’s black-red coalition to close the park at night in an effort to curb drug dealing and violent crime. The environment senator expects foundations for the barrier to be poured next, while critics question whether fencing will improve security in the Kreuzberg neighbourhood.