AfD leader quits party hours after German election breakthrough

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian

The rightwing nationalist Alternative für Deutschland, in celebratory mode after coming third in Germany’s elections, was delivered a bombshell by its leader on Monday morning after she announced she would not sit with the party in the Bundestag.

Frauke Petry walked out of a press conference at which the party leadership marvelled at its success, having secured 13% of the vote and 88 seats in the federal parliament.
...
In April, she attempted to lead the party towards what she called a more realistic and pragmatic approach, so that, she said, it would have a chance to enter coalition governments.

But her co-leader, Jörg Meuthen, and the party’s leading election candidates, Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel, rejected her stance, arguing the party’s goal should be to act as a strong opposition in the Bundestag to the politics of Angela Merkel, the chancellor.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/25/afd-leader-frauke-petry-quits-party-german-election-breakthrough

[mdbl]

1. Germany's republican party

or in other words, Nazis.

[DetlefK]

2. A perfect recipe for becoming irrelevant.

The germans Greens did that in the beginning. They eventually outgrew that and now they have moved from a bunch of dirty hippies to a respected political party governing one of Germany's states.

The german Left did that in the beginning. They eventually realized that you have a better chance of seeing your political agenda become reality if you are part of a government.



Sure, the AFD will feel great in the beginning and make lots of headlines, but people will realize pretty fast that hissing and booing from the sidelines is not the same as offering ideas.

[DFW]

4. They also lost one of their best and mst elegant voices to the SPD

Last edited Tue Sep 26, 2017, 06:06 AM - Edit history (1)

Otto Schily felt left out and drowned out, and thus said, "I'm out."

The Greens went through some growing pains, and soon learned that they could grow up or grow irrelevant. They chose the former. I am less sanguine about the AfD. The Greens' original fundamental issue involved protecting the environment. The AfD's fundamental issue involves being mean to people.

[Turn CO Blue]

5. Dirty hippies? Ah, hippie punching for breakfast. Unbelievable the stuff on DU anymore.

[VigilantG]

3. Germany's Tea Party? Alt-Right?

Boy it really sucks that we are always going to question legitimacy of elections now...despite Merkel's victory, the AfD is now going to be an obstacle to the country's agenda.