German nationalists seek to allay fears; show cracks at top
Mainstream parties have ruled out teaming up with AfD, which is one of six caucuses in the new parliament, after winning 12.6 per cent of vote
Leaders of the nationalist, antimigrant Alternative for Germany pledged Monday to use their third-place election finish to conduct robust but “constructive” opposition, and sought to allay fears raised by Jewish groups and others about their entry into parliament.
However, long-running cracks at the top of the party, known by its German acronym AfD, erupted in public when co-chairwoman Frauke Petry — one of AfD’s best-known faces but sidelined over recent months — stormed out of a press conference. That left three other top party leaders chuckling and smirking, but briefly speechless.
“An anarchic party ... can be successful in opposition, but it cannot make voters a credible offer for government.” Petry said, adding she wouldn’t join AfD’s parliamentary caucus. She walked out of the room without taking questions.
Co-chairman Joerg Meuthen Frauke Petry, co-chairwoman of the AfD, speaks before leaving a press conference of the Alternative for Germany, AfD, in Berlin, Germany, Monday. Petry said that she won’t be part of the party’s parliament faction on the day after the nationalist party was elected first time into the German parliament. Right is co-chairman Joerg Meuthen.
apologized “on behalf of the party” for the episode, saying it was “not discussed with us,” before moving on. Persistent leadership infighting so far has failed to do the party significant harm.
Germany’s mainstream parties have all ruled out teaming up
with AfD, which is one of six caucuses in the new parliament after winning 12.6 per cent of the vote. Including the seat Petry won, it has 94 of the 709 seats.
Co-leader Alice Weidel told reporters their plan was to provide “constructive opposition.”
“We have a very clear mandate from the voters, and there is no time to waste,” she said.
AfD drew support from people who previously voted for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc and from many who didn’t previously vote at all. To a lesser extent, it also drained support from the centre-left Social Democrats and others.
Its success followed a campaign focused on criticism of the chancellor’s decision to open the country’s doors to more than one million asylum-seekers over the past two years. It performed most strongly in Germany’s formerly communist and less prosperous east, capturing 22.5 per cent of the vote there — 27 per cent among male voters.
In the eastern town of Bautzen, which saw clashes last year between residents and migrants, Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union lost a seat it had held for more than 25 years to AfD, whose candidate received 32.8 per cent of the vote.
Merkel told reporters Monday that the AfD’s support in the east was mirrored in some economically depressed areas of the west by voters with similar worries.