Economics
German Populist Leader Suffers Setback Amid Party Infighting
- AfD delegates scrap Frauke Petry’s motion on party’s direction
- Petry calls move a ‘mistake’ as divisions are laid bare
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Germany’s top populist leader suffered a major setback as her right-wing party rejected her bid to move it closer to the mainstream, throwing into further disarray a political force that months ago posed the greatest risk to Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Frauke Petry, the 41-year-old face of Alternative for Germany, said she would retreat to the sidelines as the AfD party campaigns for the September election. Delegates meeting in the western German city of Cologne scrapped a motion she introduced to debate the party’s future direction, a move Petry called a “mistake.”