Advertisement

Founder of German eurosceptic party calls for end to feud

By Hans-Edzard Busemann

ESSEN, Germany (Reuters) - The founder of the eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) appealed to colleagues on Saturday to end a bitter leadership dispute that threatens to rip apart the two-year-old party.

The infighting has hit the ratings of the AfD and left it floundering at a time when it could have capitalized on anger over Greece's debt crisis.

The acrimonious feud between founder Bernd Lucke, who wants to focus on liberal economic policies, and co-leader Frauke Petry who has won support from right-wing conservatives by homing in on immigration fears, has overshadowed campaigning.

At a special weekend conference, party members will vote on which of the two will lead the party in future. Polls have shown that Lucke has broader support in the party.

Amid booing from opponents and cheering from supporters, Lucke said in a speech the last few months had been damaging.

"Things got out of control, until we publicly argued ourselves to shreds," said Lucke.

"This has cost and is costing our party and I deeply regret that ... Our opponents in the old parties are feasting on it and laughing. So now the dispute must stop."

He blamed Chancellor Angela Merkel for wasting Germans' money on Greece. "Mrs Merkel, you have delayed the bankruptcy of a whole country at the expense of taxpayers," he said.

Founded in 2013 as an anti-euro party, the AfD fell just short of the 5 percent threshold needed to enter parliament in the federal election that year. Since then it has won seats in the European Parliament and five state assemblies.

It has stolen votes from Merkel's conservatives and her former coalition partners, the Free Democrats, and risen to about 9 percent in opinion polls, but in recent weeks has slipped back to about 5 percent.

Petry, from eastern Germany, belongs to the AfD's national conservative wing and has flirted with the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement which drew up to 25,000 people to rallies earlier this year.

On Saturday or Sunday members will vote on which two people should lead their party. Lucke and Petry have said they cannot work together and Lucke has named Ulrike Trebesius, from the northern state of Schleswig Holstein, as his second leader if he is chosen.

(Writing by Madeline Chambers; editing by Andrew Roche)