The AfD has been stealing votes from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives since its founding in 2013, storming into the European Parliament and five state assemblies. Largely to blame is an acrimonious rivalry between party founder Bernd Lucke, an economics professor who grew up in western Germany, and his once-close co-leader Frauke Petry, an entrepreneur from the east. "The party has gone through a somewhat turbulent patch... and the members just want things to calm down again - they want an executive committee that works," Petry, 40, told Reuters.
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT uk.news.yahoo.com |
