Germany: AfD party leaders — lurching further to the far right
Since it was founded as a euroskeptic party in 2013, Germany's populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) has steadily moved towards the more extreme right — and swapped out leaders at every step.
Bernd Lucke (2013 - 2015)
In 2013 the economist co-founded the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a euroskeptic party that he went on to represent in the European Parliament in 2014. He left the AfD in 2015 after losing a power struggle against its more xenophobic wing.
Konrad Adam (2013-2015)
Konrad Adam, born 1942 in the western city of Wuppertal, is a German journalist and publicist. He was a member of the conservative CDU before becoming a founding member of the AfD. He left the party in 2021, blaming his longtime colleague Alexander Gauland for what he called the AfD's "tragic" development into a far-right party.
Frauke Petry (2013 - 2017)
A chemist by training, Frauke Petry (*1975) began her career as a businesswoman before overcoming Bernd Lucke in an internal power struggle in 2015. But she left the party after another leadership battle in 2017. Petry is known for her anti-Islam views and made headlines in 2016 for saying that German police should "use firearms if necessary" to prevent illegal border crossings.
Jörg Meuthen (2015 - 2022)
The economics professor, born in 1961, joined the AfD because of its euroskeptic positions. A nationalist conservative at heart, his rhetoric has been marked by xenophobia against migrants and Muslims. But he tried for years to push back against far-right extremists in the AfD — a struggle he lost. He resigned and left the party in January 2022, dogged by a donations scandal.
Alexander Gauland (2017-2019)
The former CDU member, born in 1941, is most notorious for a speech he made to the AfD's youth wing in June 2018: Acknowledging Germany's responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi era, he went on to say Germany had a "glorious history and one that lasted a lot longer than those damned 12 years. Hitler and the Nazis are just a speck of bird shit in over 1,000 years of successful German history."
Tino Chrupalla (2019 - present)
Tino Chrupalla, born in 1975 in eastern Germany, joined the AfD in 2015, attracted to its anti-immigration platform. The trained painter and decorator from Saxony has been an MP since 2017 and backs the far-right wing of the party, though he urges more moderate language.