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Co-leader of Germany's far-right AfD to quit in major blow

Frauke Petry, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany, said on Tuesday she was leaving the party in a major blow to its credibility just two days after it surged to third place in a national election.

 

The anti-immigrant AfD won 12.6 percent of the vote in Germany's election on Sunday, becoming the third-largest group in parliament and the first from the far-right to win seats in the Bundestag since the 1950s.

 

Petry, the highest-profile figure in the AfD's more moderate wing, had shocked other senior members by saying on Monday she would not sit with the AfD in the Bundestag (lower house) but rather as an independent member of parliament. Her husband, another senior AfD figure, is also leaving the party.

 

"We tried to change course but you have to realize when you reach a point when that is no longer possible," Petry, a 42-year-old chemist, told reporters in the eastern city of Dresden. "I have five children for whom I am responsible and ultimately you have to be able to look yourself in the mirror."

 

Petry has clashed with other senior members, arguing for the party to take a more moderate course to make it possible for it to join a coalition government.

 


פרסום ראשון: 09.26.17, 20:22