By May 2015, the party became polarised into two factions, one centred around Lucke and his core economic policies and another group led by Petry, which favoured an anti-immigration approach.
Pada bulan Mei 2015 partai terkutub menjadi dua fraksi, satu berpusat di sekitar Lucke dan inti kebijakan ekonomi dan kelompok lain yang dipimpin oleh Petry, yang disukai kelompok anti imigrasi.