FOR a political movement like the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the shaking of Europe’s foundations should have been a great opportunity. The party was founded in 2013 as Germany’s first euro-sceptic (rather than Eurosceptic) party. Back then, this meant opposition to the common currency but not the European Union (EU).
The message changed in 2014, as the euro crisis temporarily disappeared from the front pages of newspapers and the party began attracting people with different interests. These (mainly eastern) new fans dislike immigrants, Muslims, homosexuals, “political correctness” in the media, a perceived anti-Russian bias in foreign policy, and the EU and NATO generally. Bernd Lucke, an economic liberal who was the party’s public face, at first went along with this drift to the nationalist right, in the hope of electoral gains. The AfD duly entered the European Parliament and several regional assemblies.
To Mr Lucke’s chagrin, however, the party’s growing right wing also spawned some rivals. The most charismatic of them is Frauke Petry, a mother of four, a (failed) businesswoman and party boss in Saxony. Light skirmishing…
