Alternative for Germany (AfD) defectors Frauke Petry and her husband Marcus Pretzell fed speculation on Wednesday that they might form a group to rival a party they now describe as overly "radicalized."

But Alice Weidel, who was elected co-leader of the party caucus on Tuesday evening, retorted that an AfD rival would be "doomed to failure."

Petry, 42, walked out on Weidel and two other AfD leaders, Alexander Gauland and Jörg Meuthen, at a post-election press conference in Berlin on Monday. She said that the party needed to take a more moderate and realistic approach, saying it was currently shaping up to be an ineffective "fundamental opposition."

Exiting the AfD

Both Petry and Pretzell on Tuesday said they would each quit various posts held as members of the four-year-old populist party, albeit without specifying when.

Petry (r.) just before distancing herself from Weidel, Gauland and Meuthen on Monday

Petry quit as AfD opposition leader in Saxony's assembly, but kept the new federal seat she won outright in Sunday's Bundestag election in Saxony's Osterz hill region, just south of Dresden.

On Wednesday, the Bundestag's website listed Petry as an independent (fraktionslos in German) member of parliament.

Directly-elected politicians in Germany are at liberty to change party affiliation without giving up their seats.

Pretzell, for his part, said he would drop his post as AfD opposition faction leader in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Earlier on Wednesday, Pretzell told told public broadcaster ZDF that the public should be prepared for a surprise: "We're being spoken to by many people outside and also inside the AfD."

He also hinted at a potential partnership with the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), which suffered losses to the AfD in Sunday's election and faces a political shake up.

The CSU's historical confinement to Bavaria (the CDU does not compete in Bavaria, the CSU only competes in Bavaria) left it "federally politically castrated," Pretzell said.

"We are conducting a number of talks at the moment," Pretzell added, adding that it could take several weeks before an outcome emerged.

Since Sunday's election, CSU chairman and Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer has faced heavy internal criticism over his party's 10-percent slump in support.

Others threaten to follow

Thomas Hartung, a senior AfD official in Saxony, announced on Wednesday that he would be quitting his role as deputy chairman in the state.

Hartung said he saw two "irreconcilable streams in the AfD" and what he called a "witch hunt against independent thinkers." However, he also said that he would "naturally" remain a member of the party despite quitting his higher office.

Güllner: Far-right AfD likely to dismantle itself

The AfD in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania also saw a shift this week, when four of its 18 parliamentarians formed a rival faction on Monday.

Domain name 'dieblauen.de' fuels speculation

The German news agency dpa quoted Petry on Wednesday as saying a web address "dieblauen.de" (translating as "the Blues" in German) was registered in her name. However, Petry told dpa that the term "Blues" was an idea, not necessarily a party name, and that she would comment further on this in due course.

"I don't want to say any more about that at this time," dpa quoted Petry as saying.

The domain name is registered in Petry's name, according to Denic, which manages Germany's .de domain. Denic records say that the last change to the domain's status was made this July.

Disintegration predicted

Prior to the Petry and Pretzell AfD exits, political analysts had already speculated that the far-right party — the first to enter the Bundestag in six decades — would disintegrate.

On election eve, Forsa polling institute chief Manfred Güllner predicted: "The AfD will dismantle itself."

Sectarian groups on the far right had always done so, he told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper last Saturday.

Güllner said the AfD, now present in opposition in 13 of Germany's regional assemblies, had shown itself not to be interested in "proper parliamentary work" from day to day, but rather in disputes on political direction.

AfD 'shedding its skin'

After Petry's press conference exit on Monday, Dresden political scientist Professor Hans Vorländer told public Deutschlandfunk radio that if Petry recruited 30 "loyal supporters" in the Bundestag she could forge her own group.

Vorländer: AfD 'shedding its skin'

Bundestag organizational rules require a minimum of 30 parliamentarians for formal recognition as a parliamentary faction.

Before Sunday's election, the AfD, which he described as a "collecting basin of the disgruntled" had camouflaged its inner turmoil, Vorländer said, but its bickering had now broken out into the open.

"That's a development that has been evident for a long time," he added. "The AfD is shedding its skin."

ipj/kms (dpa, AFP) </s> BERLIN — The best-known figure in the nationalist Alternative for Germany says that she won't be its top candidate in September's German election — a decision that appears to reflect growing opposition among other leading members of the party.

Frauke Petry ousted co-founder Bernd Lucke, an economics professor, to become the party's chairwoman in 2015. Opposition to immigration and Islam have taken stage in the party's platform since then.

But the party also has become increasingly mired in infighting between Petry, her husband Marcus Pretzell and other senior figures.

Petry said in a video message posted Wednesday on Facebook that she won't lead the party's election campaign, either alone or as part of a team. </s> The co-chairwoman of the nationalist Alternative for Germany party said today she plans to leave it just two days after it made a strong showing in the country's elections.

Frauke Petry's announcement came as other politicians from the anti-migrant party gathered for their first meeting after their breakthrough.

Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 12.6% of the vote in Sunday's election to win seats in the national parliament for the first time.

Ms Petry, its co-chairwoman since 2015, announced on Monday that she would not join its parliamentary group and other leaders urged her to leave the party altogether.

"It is clear that this step will follow," Ms Petry said on Tuesday in the eastern city of Dresden, in remarks reported by the dpa news agency.

Ms Petry's husband, Marcus Pretzell, the party leader in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and a regional politician there, said he is also leaving AfD.

AfD won 94 of the 709 seats in the new German parliament, including Ms Petry's.

It was not immediately clear whether any others would follow Ms Petry, who moved AfD's focus from opposing eurozone bailouts to migration after she took over in 2015 but has been increasingly sidelined in recent months.

Ms Petry has said she was aiming to make the AfD ready for government in 2021, and urged her party earlier this year to exclude members who expressed extremist views.

She said on Monday that "an anarchic party" can be successful in opposition but cannot eye a place in government, before storming out of a press conference and leaving other party leaders momentarily speechless.

Fellow AfD members appeared relatively unconcerned by Ms Petry's departure as they gathered in Berlin.

Asked whether other politicians will follow Ms Petry, co-leader Alexander Gauland said: "I hope not, but I can't look into people's heads."

Sunday's election left Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc weakened but still easily the biggest group in parliament.

Mrs Merkel now faces a complicated task in forming a coalition, most likely with the pro-business Free Democrats and the traditionally left-leaning Greens.

Her partners in the outgoing government, the centre-left Social Democrats, say they will go into opposition after they lost substantial support in the vote.

Mrs Merkel also faces calls from her own allies for a more robust conservative image. </s> BERLIN — A leader of the nationalist Alternative for Germany has laid open differences inside the party after it surged to third place in Germany’s election, announcing she won’t join its new parliamentary caucus.

Frauke Petry is the co-chairwoman of Alternative for Germany, or AfD, but has increasingly been sidelined by other leaders over recent months. AfD was particularly successful in Petry’s home region of Saxony in Sunday’s election, and Petry herself won a seat.

Petry has said she wants to make the party ready for government in 2021, while others have made clear their priority is no-holds-barred opposition.

Petry said at a news conference Monday with other leaders: “An anarchic party … can be successful in opposition, but it cannot make voters a credible offer for government.”

Petry said she wouldn’t join AfD’s parliamentary caucus and walked out without taking questions.

Petry has differed over strategy with the AfD’s campaign headliners, Alice Weidel and Alexander Gauland, who she has suggested aren’t doing enough to attract middle-of-the-road voters to the party. Founded in 2013 to oppose financial bailouts of other euro-area countries, the AfD focused its campaign on vilifying Merkel for her open-borders refugee policy.

“I have decided that I won’t belong to the AfD caucus in the German Bundestag, but will sit for the time being as an individual member,” Petry, 42, told reporters.

Before walking out, she said the AfD needs to start a “conservative turnaround” with the aim of joining Germany’s government after the next scheduled election in 2021.

Petry, who won 37.4 percent of the vote in her district in the eastern state of Saxony, said she’ll nonetheless “continue to be active in making policy.” It wasn’t immediately clear whether any other members of the AfD’s 94-member caucus would join in her in sitting off on her own in parliament.

“A high share of votes for the AfD was predictable from the polls and we can continue to assume that the AfD will not influence government politics in Germany for the foreseeable future,” Commerzbank analysts including currency strategist Ulrich Leuchtmann said in a note to clients.

Petry’s move sheds light on discord within the lower house’s youngest party that remained below the surface during the campaign. While support for Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc fell to the lowest since 1949, she won a mandate for a fourth term and no other party in parliament wants to ally with the AfD.

In an interview with the Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper before the election, Petry said “middle-class voters are turning away” from the AfD because some of its members are making headlines that tarnish the party’s reputation.

Her criticism followed comments by Gauland, who said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee commissioner, who is of Turkish descent, should be “disposed of” in Anatolia, a comment Merkel called racist.

Gauland, a former member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, also said Germans have a right to take pride in the achievements of German soldiers in the 20th century’s two world wars.

With files from The Associated Press and Bloomberg News
Former members of the Alternative für Deutschland party Frauke Petry and Marcus Pretzell may create a new party.