BRAUNSCHWEIG, Germany — The far-right Alternative for Germany party on Saturday chose a lawmaker from the east of the country to replace controversial departing co-leader Alexander Gauland.
Tino Chrupalla, who comes from the state of Saxony and is a house painter by profession, won the contest to succeed Gauland with nearly 55 percent of votes at a party congress in the city of Braunschweig.
Germany’s mainstream political parties refuse to cooperate with the AfD, branding it xenophobic and questioning its attachment to democratic norms.
Gauland, who is retiring from frontline politics at the age of 78, drew widespread criticism last year when he played down the Nazi era, describing it as ” just bird shit in more than 1,000 years of successful German history.”
Gauland is nevertheless regarded as a relative moderate within the AfD and he had made clear that Chrupalla was his preferred successor. Chrupalla, 44, defeated Gottfried Curio, seen as more of a hardliner, in a run-off vote.
Chrupalla’s co-leader will be Jörg Meuthen, a member of the European Parliament who was re-elected to his party post with 69 percent of votes at the congress.
The AfD experienced a surge in popularity in the wake of the 2015 migration crisis and forms the third-largest group in the German parliament. The party is also represented in all of Germany’s 16 regional parliaments and is particularly strong in the east of the country.