Frauke Petry
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Frauke Petry, Source: Frauke Petry.net
Frauke Petry was one of three leaders of the German Euro-sceptic party Alternative for Germany (Alternativ für Deutschland) (AfD) as of January 2015.[1]
In July 2015 Petry was elected party leader. Her appointment was viewed as a shift to the right, and five MEPs quit the party in protest. Party co-founder Bernd Lucke cited 'a rise of xenophobic sentiment in the AfD', and announced he was leaving to form a new party, the Alliance for Progress and Renewal.
Petry's leadership has resulted in closer links to Pegida:
- In the past AfD has tried to distance itself from the anti-immigrant, anti-Islamic campaign group Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident (Pegida) which, like Petry, originated in Dresden. But increasingly her party is being talked about as the political arm of Pegida. Petry has done little to persuade anyone otherwise. [2]
In January 2016 she sparked international outrage with provocative comments about refugees. She stated in an interview that German border police should shoot at refugees entering the country illegally "as a last resort" [3]
Affiliations
- Alternative for Germany - Leader/speaker from July 2015 onwards
External resources
- Kate Connolly, Frauke Petry: smiling face of Germany’s resurgent right, The Observer, 6 February 2016
Notes
- ↑ Gone boy on the right, The Economist, 24 January 2015
- ↑ Kate Connolly, Frauke Petry: smiling face of Germany’s resurgent right, The Observer, 6 February 2016
- ↑ Charlotte Beale, '- 'German police should shoot refugees, says leader of AfD party Frauke Petry' The Independent, 31 January 2016. Accessed 13 September 2016.
