Members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) gathered in the western city of Essen for a two-day party congress, as huge crowds of protesters clashed with a massive contingent of police outside the venue. The AfD is coming off a second-place finish in the European Parliament elections earlier this month, and is gearing up for state parliamentary elections in three eastern German states where the anti-immigrant and eurosceptic party appears to have an edge in the polls. “We are number one in the east,” AfD co-chairman Tino Chrupalla declared to delegates on Saturday. “We want to win t…