Alternative for Germany (AfD) defectors Frauke Petry and her husband Marcus Pretzell fed speculation on Wednesday that they might form a group to rival a party they now describe as overly "radicalized."

But Alice Weidel, who was elected co-leader of the party caucus on Tuesday evening, retorted that an AfD rival would be "doomed to failure."

Petry, 42, walked out on Weidel and two other AfD leaders, Alexander Gauland and Jörg Meuthen, at a post-election press conference in Berlin on Monday. She said that the party needed to take a more moderate and realistic approach, saying it was currently shaping up to be an ineffective "fundamental opposition."

Exiting the AfD

Both Petry and Pretzell on Tuesday said they would each quit various posts held as members of the four-year-old populist party, albeit without specifying when.

Petry (r.) just before distancing herself from Weidel, Gauland and Meuthen on Monday

Petry quit as AfD opposition leader in Saxony's assembly, but kept the new federal seat she won outright in Sunday's Bundestag election in Saxony's Osterz hill region, just south of Dresden.

On Wednesday, the Bundestag's website listed Petry as an independent (fraktionslos in German) member of parliament.

Directly-elected politicians in Germany are at liberty to change party affiliation without giving up their seats.

Pretzell, for his part, said he would drop his post as AfD opposition faction leader in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Earlier on Wednesday, Pretzell told told public broadcaster ZDF that the public should be prepared for a surprise: "We're being spoken to by many people outside and also inside the AfD."

He also hinted at a potential partnership with the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), which suffered losses to the AfD in Sunday's election and faces a political shake up.

The CSU's historical confinement to Bavaria (the CDU does not compete in Bavaria, the CSU only competes in Bavaria) left it "federally politically castrated," Pretzell said.

"We are conducting a number of talks at the moment," Pretzell added, adding that it could take several weeks before an outcome emerged.

Since Sunday's election, CSU chairman and Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer has faced heavy internal criticism over his party's 10-percent slump in support.

Others threaten to follow

Thomas Hartung, a senior AfD official in Saxony, announced on Wednesday that he would be quitting his role as deputy chairman in the state.

Hartung said he saw two "irreconcilable streams in the AfD" and what he called a "witch hunt against independent thinkers." However, he also said that he would "naturally" remain a member of the party despite quitting his higher office.

Güllner: Far-right AfD likely to dismantle itself

The AfD in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania also saw a shift this week, when four of its 18 parliamentarians formed a rival faction on Monday.

Domain name 'dieblauen.de' fuels speculation

The German news agency dpa quoted Petry on Wednesday as saying a web address "dieblauen.de" (translating as "the Blues" in German) was registered in her name. However, Petry told dpa that the term "Blues" was an idea, not necessarily a party name, and that she would comment further on this in due course.

"I don't want to say any more about that at this time," dpa quoted Petry as saying.

The domain name is registered in Petry's name, according to Denic, which manages Germany's .de domain. Denic records say that the last change to the domain's status was made this July.

Disintegration predicted

Prior to the Petry and Pretzell AfD exits, political analysts had already speculated that the far-right party — the first to enter the Bundestag in six decades — would disintegrate.

On election eve, Forsa polling institute chief Manfred Güllner predicted: "The AfD will dismantle itself."

Sectarian groups on the far right had always done so, he told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper last Saturday.

Güllner said the AfD, now present in opposition in 13 of Germany's regional assemblies, had shown itself not to be interested in "proper parliamentary work" from day to day, but rather in disputes on political direction.

AfD 'shedding its skin'

After Petry's press conference exit on Monday, Dresden political scientist Professor Hans Vorländer told public Deutschlandfunk radio that if Petry recruited 30 "loyal supporters" in the Bundestag she could forge her own group.

Vorländer: AfD 'shedding its skin'

Bundestag organizational rules require a minimum of 30 parliamentarians for formal recognition as a parliamentary faction.

Before Sunday's election, the AfD, which he described as a "collecting basin of the disgruntled" had camouflaged its inner turmoil, Vorländer said, but its bickering had now broken out into the open.

"That's a development that has been evident for a long time," he added. "The AfD is shedding its skin."

ipj/kms (dpa, AFP) </s> BERLIN — The best-known figure in the nationalist Alternative for Germany says that she won't be its top candidate in September's German election — a decision that appears to reflect growing opposition among other leading members of the party.

Frauke Petry ousted co-founder Bernd Lucke, an economics professor, to become the party's chairwoman in 2015. Opposition to immigration and Islam have taken stage in the party's platform since then.

But the party also has become increasingly mired in infighting between Petry, her husband Marcus Pretzell and other senior figures.

Petry said in a video message posted Wednesday on Facebook that she won't lead the party's election campaign, either alone or as part of a team. </s> The co-chairwoman of the nationalist Alternative for Germany party said today she plans to leave it just two days after it made a strong showing in the country's elections.

Frauke Petry's announcement came as other politicians from the anti-migrant party gathered for their first meeting after their breakthrough.

Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 12.6% of the vote in Sunday's election to win seats in the national parliament for the first time.

Ms Petry, its co-chairwoman since 2015, announced on Monday that she would not join its parliamentary group and other leaders urged her to leave the party altogether.

"It is clear that this step will follow," Ms Petry said on Tuesday in the eastern city of Dresden, in remarks reported by the dpa news agency.

Ms Petry's husband, Marcus Pretzell, the party leader in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and a regional politician there, said he is also leaving AfD.

AfD won 94 of the 709 seats in the new German parliament, including Ms Petry's.

It was not immediately clear whether any others would follow Ms Petry, who moved AfD's focus from opposing eurozone bailouts to migration after she took over in 2015 but has been increasingly sidelined in recent months.

Ms Petry has said she was aiming to make the AfD ready for government in 2021, and urged her party earlier this year to exclude members who expressed extremist views.

She said on Monday that "an anarchic party" can be successful in opposition but cannot eye a place in government, before storming out of a press conference and leaving other party leaders momentarily speechless.

Fellow AfD members appeared relatively unconcerned by Ms Petry's departure as they gathered in Berlin.

Asked whether other politicians will follow Ms Petry, co-leader Alexander Gauland said: "I hope not, but I can't look into people's heads."

Sunday's election left Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc weakened but still easily the biggest group in parliament.

Mrs Merkel now faces a complicated task in forming a coalition, most likely with the pro-business Free Democrats and the traditionally left-leaning Greens.

Her partners in the outgoing government, the centre-left Social Democrats, say they will go into opposition after they lost substantial support in the vote.

Mrs Merkel also faces calls from her own allies for a more robust conservative image. </s> BERLIN — A leader of the nationalist Alternative for Germany has laid open differences inside the party after it surged to third place in Germany’s election, announcing she won’t join its new parliamentary caucus.

Frauke Petry is the co-chairwoman of Alternative for Germany, or AfD, but has increasingly been sidelined by other leaders over recent months. AfD was particularly successful in Petry’s home region of Saxony in Sunday’s election, and Petry herself won a seat.

Petry has said she wants to make the party ready for government in 2021, while others have made clear their priority is no-holds-barred opposition.

Petry said at a news conference Monday with other leaders: “An anarchic party … can be successful in opposition, but it cannot make voters a credible offer for government.”

Petry said she wouldn’t join AfD’s parliamentary caucus and walked out without taking questions.

Petry has differed over strategy with the AfD’s campaign headliners, Alice Weidel and Alexander Gauland, who she has suggested aren’t doing enough to attract middle-of-the-road voters to the party. Founded in 2013 to oppose financial bailouts of other euro-area countries, the AfD focused its campaign on vilifying Merkel for her open-borders refugee policy.

“I have decided that I won’t belong to the AfD caucus in the German Bundestag, but will sit for the time being as an individual member,” Petry, 42, told reporters.

Before walking out, she said the AfD needs to start a “conservative turnaround” with the aim of joining Germany’s government after the next scheduled election in 2021.

Petry, who won 37.4 percent of the vote in her district in the eastern state of Saxony, said she’ll nonetheless “continue to be active in making policy.” It wasn’t immediately clear whether any other members of the AfD’s 94-member caucus would join in her in sitting off on her own in parliament.

“A high share of votes for the AfD was predictable from the polls and we can continue to assume that the AfD will not influence government politics in Germany for the foreseeable future,” Commerzbank analysts including currency strategist Ulrich Leuchtmann said in a note to clients.

Petry’s move sheds light on discord within the lower house’s youngest party that remained below the surface during the campaign. While support for Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc fell to the lowest since 1949, she won a mandate for a fourth term and no other party in parliament wants to ally with the AfD.

In an interview with the Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper before the election, Petry said “middle-class voters are turning away” from the AfD because some of its members are making headlines that tarnish the party’s reputation.

Her criticism followed comments by Gauland, who said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee commissioner, who is of Turkish descent, should be “disposed of” in Anatolia, a comment Merkel called racist.

Gauland, a former member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, also said Germans have a right to take pride in the achievements of German soldiers in the 20th century’s two world wars.

With files from The Associated Press and Bloomberg News </s> COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — Germany's best-known nationalist politician on Saturday called on members of the Alternative for Germany to endorse her more pragmatic course instead of turning the party into a "fundamental opposition," an appeal that appeared to reveal the growing split among the populist party's leading figures.

Speaking in front of AfD members at a party convention in the western city of Cologne, Frauke Petry said that party needs to set the course for a "spiritual-moral change" in Germany and the rest of Europe.

The convention takes place days after Petry said that she won't be her party's top candidate in the September general election, a move seen by many as a consequence to the party leaders' infighting about the future direction of the AfD.

The convention in a Cologne hotel was overshadowed by massive left-wing demonstrations. Around 50,000 left-wing protesters were expected and about 4,000 police officers were on the ground in Cologne to prevent a violent escalation of anti-populist rallies.

Protesters injured one police officer Saturday morning while trying to block the hotel where about 600 AfD members were gathered.

The German news agency dpa reported that AfD party members could enter their convention center only with massive police protection because hundreds of demonstrators tried to keep them out.

Petry became co-leader of the four-year-old AfD in 2015. She ousted fellow founder Bernd Lucke, an economics professor, shifting the party's focus from economic issues to immigration and Islam.

AfD's poll ratings soared with the influx of migrants to Germany in late 2015 and early 2016. However, they have sagged in recent months as the issue faded from headlines and the party became increasingly mired in infighting with Petry and her husband, Marcus Pretzell, on one side, and other senior figures even further on the right.

Petry, 41, also irked some rivals by leading an effort to expel Bjoern Hoecke, AfD's regional leader in eastern Thuringia state, after he suggested that Germany stop acknowledging and atoning for its Nazi past.

With her refusal to become the AfD's top candidate on Wednesday, Petry ended months of speculation about her ambitions to lead the party's effort to enter the national parliament for the first time in Germany's Sept. 24 election.

She did not, however, suggest any plans to step down as party chairwoman.

German political parties choose lead candidates for elections who generally dominate their campaigns and, in the case of bigger parties, compete to become chancellor. </s> MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Frauke Petry, the leader of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, said Wednesday she did not want to be its sole lead candidate for chancellorship in this September’s general election.

"I am not available either as a sole frontrunner or a member of a lead [campaign] team," she said in a video address on Facebook.

Petry refuted accusations of allowing a split inside the party that created two rival camps with competing strategies ahead of this weekend’s party conference in Cologne, and insisted the AfD needed to map out a joint strategy.

"It is important that we are able to discuss urgent issues, such as our [election] bid, which will determine AfD’s future in the coming months and years, without having to deal with alleged or real personnel problems," she said.

Germans are expected to vote on September 24 in a general election that will elect a new government and chancellor. This will be the second federal election for the populist AfD, founded in 2013, which is expected to win seats this time. </s> BERLIN, April 19 (Reuters) - Frauke Petry, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), said on Wednesday she would not lead the anti-immigration party's campaign for a Sept. 24 federal election - a shock announcement from the woman seen as the face of the party.

Opinion polls show the AfD winning enough votes to enter the Bundestag lower house of parliament for the first time. But the AfD has lost about a third of its supporters as migrant arrivals to Germany have eased and the party has also been hit by infighting and controversy over its attitude to the Nazi past.

Petry caused controversy by tabling a motion for a party congress next weekend in which she said the AfD - which is shunned by other parties - should be ready to join coalitions in future. She also said some senior AfD members such as Alexander Gauland wanted it to be a "fundamental" opposition party.

Speaking in a video message posted on her Facebook page, Petry said she had been accused of making the proposal solely to become the party's top candidate despite her not mentioning that idea in her motion.

"In order to put an end to all speculation in this regard, I am using the opportunity of this video message to clearly state that I am neither available for a lone lead candidacy nor for participation in a top team," she said.

The AfD, which rails against Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow more than a million migrants into Germany since mid-2015, is due to decide on its election leadership line-up at its weekend gathering in the western city of Cologne.

Petry's camp wants to expel from the party a senior member, Bjoern Hoecke, for calling Berlin's Holocaust Memorial a "monument of shame" and saying history books should be re-written to focus more on German victims of the Nazis.

Petry, a 41-year-old chemist from the former Communist East Germany, managed to secure a two-thirds majority on the party executive board in favour of expelling Hoecke. The far-right wing of the AfD supports him, however, and a party arbitration board must now decide his fate.

A Forsa opinion poll published on Wednesday showed the AfD winning eight percent in the election, well above the five percent threshold needed to win seats in the Bundestag. Merkel's conservatives are seen emerging as the largest party.

Germany's Der Spiegel magazine has reported that Petry's opponents agreed at a secret meeting last week to form a team around 76-year-old publicist Gauland and 38-year-old economist Alice Weidel - who, like Petry, wants Hoecke ousted. The AfD could not be reached for comment on the report. (Additional reporting by Hans-Edzard Busemann and Paul Carrel; Writing by Michelle Martin; Editing by Madeline Chambers and Gareth Jones) </s> BERLIN (Reuters) - Frauke Petry, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), said on Wednesday she would not lead the anti-immigration party’s campaign for a Sept. 24 federal election - a surprising move that could play into the hands of established parties.

FILE PHOTO: Anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) chairwoman Frauke Petry delivers her keynote speech at the AfD's election campaign launch for the upcoming North Rhine-Westphalian federal state elections in Essen, Germany April 8, 2017. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay /File Photo

The shock decision by Petry, the face of the AfD, removes her from the very top of a party that has hurt Angela Merkel’s conservatives in regional votes but which may now pose less of a threat to the chancellor’s bid for a fourth term in office.

Petry’s announcement came after she caused controversy by tabling a motion for a congress next weekend in which she said the AfD - which is shunned by other parties - should be ready to join coalitions in future. She said some other senior AfD members like Alexander Gauland, however, wanted it to be a “fundamental” opposition party.

Speaking in a video message posted on her Facebook page, Petry denied suggestions that she had made the proposal with a view to becoming the party’s top candidate.

“In order to put an end to all speculation in this regard, I am using the opportunity of this video message to clearly state that I am neither available for a lone lead candidacy nor for participation in a top team,” she said.

Opinion polls show the AfD winning enough votes to enter the Bundestag lower house of parliament for the first time after September’s election.

But the party has lost about a third of its supporters since late last year, hit by a slowdown in migrant arrivals, AfD infighting and controversy over its attitude to the Nazi past.

Petry said she had decided not to run as it was important for the AfD to discuss issues such as her proposal on the party’s future strategy - which the majority of regional AfD branches oppose - without being hindered by personnel questions.

OTHER PARTIES TO GAIN?

Thomas Jaeger, a political scientist at Cologne University, said it would be hard for anyone else to rival Petry in terms of public profile, forcing whoever takes up the leadership role to take tough positions to get the same attention she has enjoyed.

Petry is a 41-year-old chemist from the former Communist East Germany and is expecting her fifth child.

A far right-wing candidate would probably still manage to lead the AfD into parliament but would deter some voters, said Jaeger.

“All those (parties) who lost some points - and that’s actually all of them - will regain some percentage points, albeit to differing extents,” he said.

The AfD, which rails against Merkel’s decision to allow more than a million migrants into Germany since mid-2015, is due to decide on its election leadership line-up at a weekend gathering in Cologne, where tens of thousands of protesters are expected.

Petry’s camp wants to expel from the party a senior member, Bjoern Hoecke, for calling Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial a “monument of shame” and saying history books should be re-written to focus more on German victims of the Nazis.

Petry managed to secure a two-thirds majority on the party executive board in favor of expelling Hoecke. However, the far-right wing of the AfD supports him and a party arbitration board must now decide his fate.

A Forsa opinion poll published on Wednesday showed the AfD winning eight percent in the election, well above the five percent threshold needed to win seats in the Bundestag. Merkel’s conservatives are seen remaining the largest party bloc.

Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine has reported that Petry’s opponents agreed at a secret meeting last week to form a team around Gauland, a 76-year-old publicist, and 38-year-old economist Alice Weidel - who, like Petry, wants Hoecke ousted.

The AfD could not be reached for comment on the report. </s> BERLIN: Frauke Petry, leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), said on Wednesday she would not lead the anti-immigration party's campaign ahead of a Sept. 24 federal election.

"In order to put an end to all speculation in this regard, I am using the opportunity of this video message to clearly state that I am neither available for a lone lead candidacy nor for participation in a top team," she said on Facebook.

The AfD is holding a party congress at the weekend to decide on its leadership line-up for the election, at which the party is expected to win sufficient support to enter the Bundestag lower house of parliament for the first time.
Former members of the Alternative für Deutschland party Frauke Petry and Marcus Pretzell may create a new party.