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Frauke Petry

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Frauke Petry
MdB a.D.
Petry in 2016
Leader of Die Blaue Partei
In office
14 October 2017 – 31 December 2019
DeputyMichael Muster
Alexander Langguth
Hubertus von Below
Preceded byMichael Muster
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Leader of the Alternative for Germany
In office
4 July 2015 – 29 September 2017
Serving with Jörg Meuthen
Preceded byBernd Lucke
Succeeded byJörg Meuthen
Member of the Bundestag
for Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge
In office
24 October 2017 – 26 October 2021
Preceded byKlaus Brähmig
Succeeded bySteffen Janich
Saxony state politics
(2013–2019)
Leader of the Alternative for Germany in Saxony
In office
28 April 2013 – 26 September 2017
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byJörg Urban
Leader of the Alternative for Germany in the Landtag of Saxony
In office
3 September 2014 – 30 September 2017
DeputyJörg Urban
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byJörg Urban
Member of the Landtag of Saxony
In office
29 September 2014 – 1 October 2019
ConstituencyAfD List
Personal details
Born
Frauke Marquardt

(1975-06-01) 1 June 1975 (age 49)
Dresden, East Germany
Political partyIndependent (2019–present)
Blue Party (2017–2019)
AfD (2013–2017)
Other political
affiliations		European Conservatives and Reformists
Spouses
  • Sven Petry
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1998; div. 2016)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 2016)​
Children6
Residence(s)Frohburg, Germany
EducationUniversity of Reading
University of Göttingen
OccupationPolitician

Frauke Petry (German: [ˈfʁaʊkə ˈpeːtʁiː]; née Marquardt; born 1 June 1975) is a German politician who chaired the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party from July 2015 to September 2017. A chemist by training and with a professional background as a businesswoman, some political scientists described Petry as a representative of the national conservative wing of that party.[1][2][3][4]

Petry had formerly served as one of three party spokespersons from 2013 to 2015,[5] and became leader in 2015, displacing the party's founder Bernd Lucke after an internal power struggle; Lucke subsequently left the party and said it has "fallen irretrievably into the wrong hands" after Petry's election. Petry left the party in turn after stating it had become "anarchical" and unable to provide a "credible platform".[6]

Petry is noted for her anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views, for her calls to ban minarets,[7] and for arguing that German police forces should "use firearms if necessary" to prevent illegal border-crossings in Europe.[8] She led the Blue Party until its dissolution in late 2019.[9]

Early life

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Petry was born on 1 June 1975 to a chemist and an engineer in Dresden in what was then East Germany. She lived in Schwarzheide, Brandenburg, near Saxony until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, after which her family moved to Bergkamen, in Westphalia. Petry took her first degree in chemistry at the University of Reading, England, in 1998, before attending the University of Göttingen, from where she gained a doctorate in 2004.[10][11] She was supported by a scholarship of the Studienstiftung.[12]

Political orientation

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Petry was described as a representative of the national-conservative wing of her party.[1][2][3][4] To the contrary, political scientist Cas Mudde described her as a representative of the far-right wing of her party.[13] Petry describes herself as national-conservative and supporting policies of "national self-determinism". Der Spiegel reports that her electoral success on 4 July 2015, which gave her the reins of leadership in the AfD in preference to Bernd Lucke, one of the party's founders, was made possible by the national-conservative wing of the party. Lucke's wing did not have the majority.[5]

On the subject of the political spectrum, Petry has said, "Right and left are terms that haven't fitted for a long time".[14] Petry believes sharia is incompatible with the "democratic and liberal order of state"[15] and has said that the majority within her AfD favors a liberal-conservative policy.[16]

Border control

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In January 2016, when a reporter from the regional newspaper Mannheimer Morgen asked her about European and German border policies, Petry answered that the German Border Police (Bundesgrenzschutz) must do their jobs by "hindering illegal entry of refugees". The reporter followed up on her response, using the term Schießbefehl which means "order to shoot". Petry stated that she did not use that term, going on to state that no policeman "wants to fire on a refugee and I don't want that either" but that the BGS must follow the law to maintain the integrity of European borders.[16] Afterwards, Petry made several attempts to justify these statements.[15][16]

Male circumcision

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In a rough draft of its manifesto, the AfD had considered adopting a stance stating that male circumcision should be outlawed, but Petry said in her interview with Tim Sebastian on 21 March 2016 that this language would not be in the final draft.[15] The Central Council of Jews in Germany is also in an uproar over the question of religious circumcision, stating that to give precedence to a child's self-determination over his parents' right of freedom of religion is "an unprecedented and dramatic intrusion on the right to self-determination of religious communities".[17] This national dialogue is happening in the wake of a 2012 decision of a Higher Regional Court in Cologne, which called the circumcision of a 4-year-old boy "bodily harm".[17]

Women in society

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Unlike the SPD[relevant?], Petry does not believe mandatory quotas are the right way to give opportunities to women, nor does she believe they improve the chances of women having more leadership positions. She believes quotas make women unsure of whether a promotion would be made on the basis of qualifications.[18]

Regarding the issue of burqas, Petry believes it should not be compulsory for women to dress in such a manner. She has said that in schools "this sort of religious costume should not be worn".[15]

Migration

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On the issue of international migration, Petry is of the view that, "We [Germany and the rest of Europe] have to decide what sort of migration we want to accept".[15] She has said, "Deciding about who's migrating and who's not, who's going to be part of a new country is, in the end, a question of borders, whether you see them, or whether you don't. When I go to France, I don't see the border, but I know it's there and I accept it, be it in terms of speed limits, or be it in terms of laws and legislation".[15]

Resignation from AfD

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In April 2017, Petry stepped down as AfD's candidate for chancellor due to reports that she wanted to change the party's policies to appeal to more moderate voters like the Sweden Democrats.[19] This came after she had frequently criticised Björn Höcke, one of the founders of AfD,[20][21][22][23] due to a speech that he held in Dresden in which, referring to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, he stated that "we Germans are the only people in the world who have planted a memorial of shame in the heart of their capital",[24] and suggested that Germans "need to make a 180 degree change in their politics of commemoration".[25] The speech was widely criticized as antisemitic, among others by Jewish leaders in Germany.[24][26] Petry backed attempts to expel Höcke from AfD as the party chairwoman, describing him as a "burden to the party",[24] but could not prevail in a power struggle with her party rivals Jörg Meuthen[19] and Alexander Gauland,[27] who accused her of splitting party ranks.[28] Despite the internal strife, her party voted to allow her to run for a seat in the German parliament in the September 2017 elections.[28]

One day after election night in which Petry was elected to the Bundestag by direct mandate, she left an AfD press conference saying that she won't join the party's parliamentary group in the Bundestag because the party became too "anarchical" and "could not offer a credible platform". Alice Weidel, the AfD's frontrunner, demanded her resignation from the party.[6] Following this, Petry said that she would join the Bundestag as an independent politician.[29] She resigned from the party and all offices on 29 September 2017.[30] She was subsequently charged with perjury for allegedly lying under oath about her former party's finances.[31] She was convicted and sentenced to a fine of 6,000 euros. In 2020, the Federal Court of Justice overturned the conviction on the grounds that the law on perjury did not apply to the context in which she made the false statements.[32]

On 12 October 2017, Petry announced that she would form a new party, called the Blue Party, which would provide a "reasonable conservative" agenda and seek to replicate the success of the Bavarian Christian Social Union.[33] In late 2019, that party was dissolved.[9]

Petry made a reappearance in public during an April 2021 interview with Kurt Krömer in which she spoke about the Alternative for Germany donation scandal. She revealed that she would be writing a book about her time as AfD leader.[34][35] The book was subsequently published as Requiem for the AfD in which Petry argued the party had become a "chaotic protest party" no longer interested in governing after she resigned as leader and accused politicians within the party of being blackmailed into accepting undeclared donations.[36]

Personal life

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In 2007, Petry founded her own business, PURinvent, a Leipzig-based manufacturer of polyurethane tire fill products.[11] She received the Medal of the Order of Merit in 2012.[37][38]

Petry separated from her husband, Sven Petry, a Lutheran pastor,[14] in October 2015, stating that this was by mutual consent and that the two remained friends and would continue to share in the upbringing of their four children.[39] Frauke Petry also revealed that "much more than just friendly feelings" had developed between her and Marcus Pretzell, a fellow AfD party member.[40] At about the same time, it was announced that Sven Petry had joined the CDU.[41][14] In December 2016, Petry married Pretzell, by then her domestic partner.[42][43] Having had two further children with Pretzell,[44] Petry now has six altogether and lives in Tautenhain, Saxony.[11][37]

Petry is a member of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony, a member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). She criticizes many stances of the EKD, which historically holds a largely liberal Protestant stance, claiming it follows "only its own interests" regarding immigration. In 2016 she advocated its cooperation with AfD in order to defend the "European Christian values of the West".[45]

References

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  1. ^ a b Lars Geiges, Stine Marg, Franz Walter: Pegida. Die schmutzige Seite der Zivilgesellschaft? Transcript, Bielefeld 2015, ISBN 978-3-8376-3192-0, S. 153.
  2. ^ a b Gudrun Hentges: Sarrazins Erben: Ressentiments von PEGIDA und AfD finden sich schon beim Ex-Finanzsenator. In: ROSALUX. Journal der Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Ausgabe 1/2015, 20 f.
  3. ^ a b Kristina zur Mühlen: "Politologe zum Flügelkampf in der AfD: Machtkampf mindert die Wahlchancen" (Interview with Jürgen W. Falter) (in German). tagesschau24. tagesschau.de. 22 January 2015. Archived from the original on 31 October 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  4. ^ a b Frank Decker: Alternative für Deutschland und Pegida. Die Ankunft des neuen Rechtspopulismus in der Bundesrepublik. In: Frank Decker, Bernd Henningsen, Kjetil Jakobsen (Hrsg.): Rechtspopulismus und Rechtsextremismus in Europa. Die Herausforderung der Zivilgesellschaft durch alte Ideologien und neue Medien (= International Studies on Populism. Bd. 2). Nomos, Baden-Baden 2015, ISBN 978-3-8487-1206-9, S. 75–90, hier: S. 80.
  5. ^ a b "AfD: Lucke-Anhänger wollen neue Partei gründen". Der Spiegel (in German). 13 July 2015. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  6. ^ a b "+++ German election, the day after - live updates +++ – DW – 09/25/2017". dw.com.
  7. ^ Huggler, Justin (May 2016). "Far right AfD party says Muslims not welcome in Germany". The Telegraph.
  8. ^ "Refugees should be shot 'if necessary', says party leader in Germany". Independent.co.uk. 31 January 2016.
  9. ^ a b SPIEGEL, DER (5 November 2019). "Frauke Petry kündigt Ende ihrer "Blauen Partei" an – DER SPIEGEL – Politik". Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  10. ^ Petry, Frauke (2004). Charakterisierung eines neuen ATP-binding-cassette Transporters aus der ABCA-Subfamilie (PDF) (in German). University of Göttingen. p. 129. Retrieved 27 September 2013.(dissertation/curriculum vitae)
  11. ^ a b c Lang, Thomas (9 February 2011). "Geithain – Gründerinnenpreis Sachsens geht an Tautenhainerin". Leipziger Volkszeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 16 April 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
  12. ^ Jessen, Jens (9 July 2015). "Stipendiaten | In bester Gesellschaft". Die Zeit. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  13. ^ Mudde, Cas (13 March 2016). "One Alternative for Germany or Many? The Mixed Message of the German State Elections". The Huffington Post.
  14. ^ a b c Kate Connolly (7 February 2016). "Frauke Petry: Smiling face of Germany's resurgent right". The Observer. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
  15. ^ a b c d e f Sebastian, Tim (21 March 2016). "Transcript: Tim Sebastian interviews Frauke Petry". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  16. ^ a b c Mack, Steffen; Serif, Walter (30 January 2016). "Sie können es nicht lassen!". Mannheimer Morgen (in German). Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  17. ^ a b "Cutting Controversy: German Court Sets New Circumcision Rules". Der Spiegel. 27 September 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  18. ^ "Die Frauenquote sei "völlig unausgegoren"". Wirtschaftswoche (in German). 27 November 2014. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  19. ^ a b Huggler, Justin (21 April 2017). "German far-right leader stuns party by quitting chancellor race". The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  20. ^ Polke-Majewski, Karsten (18 February 2016). "Björn Höcke: Mein Mitschüler, der rechte Agitator". Die Zeit. Archived from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  21. ^ "Landtagswahl 2014: Welche Koalitionen sind in Thüringen möglich?"". Thüringische Landeszeitung. 16 July 2014.[permanent dead link]
  22. ^ "AfD Vorstand Thüringen". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  23. ^ "Thüringen: Ausschuss hebt Immunität von AfD-Fraktionschef Höcke auf". Der Spiegel. 3 July 2015. Archived from the original on 19 April 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  24. ^ a b c "AfD-Mann Höcke löst mit Kritik an Holocaust-Gedenken Empörung aus". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 18 January 2017. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  25. ^ Matthias Kamann (19 January 2017). "Was Höcke mit der "Denkmal der Schande"-Rede bezweckt". Die Welt (in German). Archived from the original on 23 October 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  26. ^ "AfD-Chefin Petry: "Höcke ist eine Belastung für die Partei"". Junge Freiheit (in German). 18 January 2017. Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  27. ^ Frauke Petry bezichtigt Gauland und Meuthen der Lüge, Die Welt
  28. ^ a b Alternative for Germany's Frauke Petry survives attempted in-party putsch, DW.com
  29. ^ AfD leader quits party caucus hours after German election breakthrough, The Guardian
  30. ^ Weiland, Severin (29 September 2017). "Petry offiziell ausgetreten: AfD bangt um ihre Mitte". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  31. ^ Huggler, Justin (4 October 2017). "Former AfD leader Frauke Petry could face jail after being charged with perjury". The Telegraph.
  32. ^ Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche. "Bundesgerichtshof spricht Frauke Petry in Falscheid-Verfahren frei | DW | 6 May 2020". DW.COM (in German). Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  33. ^ "Former leader of Germany's far-right kicks off new 'Blue Party'". Reuters. 12 October 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  34. ^ "Chez Krömer – Frauke Petry (S04/E03)". ARD-Mediathek. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  35. ^ Marcel Görmann (9 April 2021). "AfD: "Unangenehm" – Zuschauer nach Auftritt von Ex-Parteichefin Frauke Petry bei Krömer frustriert". DerWesten. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  36. ^ Markus Wehner: Frauke Petry rechnet mit der AfD ab. www.faz.net, 18. Juni 2021.
  37. ^ a b Lang, Thomas (8 October 2012). "Borna – Verdienstorden mit 37 Jahren". Leipziger Volkszeitung (in German). Retrieved 27 September 2013.
  38. ^ "Ordensverleihung zum Tag der Deutschen Einheit" (in German). Bundespräsidialamt. 4 October 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
  39. ^ "AfD-Chefin Petry trennt sich von ihrem Ehemann". Sächsische Zeitung (in German). 7 October 2015. Archived from the original on 24 August 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  40. ^ Peter Teffer (30 October 2015). "Germany's anti-euro party which became two". EUobserver. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  41. ^ Decker, Markus (12 October 2015). "Sven Petry geht zur CDU" (in German). FRANKFURTER RUNDSCHAU. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  42. ^ Amann, Melanie; Weiland, Severin (12 February 2016). "Angebliches Beratungsangebot: Die AfD, der Journalist und ein heikler Vorwurf". Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  43. ^ Justus Bender (22 December 2016). "Frauke Petry heiratet ein zweites Mal". FAZ.net (in German). Retrieved 22 December 2016.
  44. ^ Frauke Petry: Ehemann, Karriere, Kinder – Was macht sie nach der AfD?, merkur.de, 2 September 2019, accessed 27 June 2021 (in German)
  45. ^ "Wie christlich ist die AfD? – Evangelische Kirchengemeinde Hennef". 18 April 2016.
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