BERLIN, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- A co-leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD) -- a right-wing populist and Eurosceptic political party in Germany -- announced Monday that she will not join her party's faction in Germany's new federal parliament Bundestag.
Speaking at the AfD's official press conference only a day after the party secured 12.6 percent of the vote in German federal elections and thus entered the country's parliament for the first time, Frauke Petry said she had made her decision "after lengthy consideration."
The move marks another significant step in Petry's gradual withdrawal from the AfD's leadership circle and visibly surprised her co-leaders Alexander Gauland, Alice Weidel and Joerg Meuthen, who yelled at Petry for "abusing the forum" as she was abruptly leaving the conference room.
Petry had criticized her fellow party members earlier for relying on provocative statements rather than political substance in their campaigns, and the AfD's impressive electoral performance appears to have brought broiling inner-party divisions to the fore.
Amongst others, Petry has distanced herself from the controversial comments made by Gauland over Germany's Nazi past and his desire to "dispose of" the Turkish-descended Social Democratic Party (SPD) politician Aydan Oezuguz in her home country.
Petry wants the AfD to be in a position to form a government by 2021 and has urged the party to adopt a "Realpolitik" towards this end. She said Germany needed "reasonable conservative politics" rather than "outlandish comments" heard from some AfD politicians in the past.
Petry interpreted the AfD's strong performance in her home state of Saxony and the personal mandate she received there for a parliamentary seat as a confirmation that the party's long-term success depended on rejecting more radical tones.
In turn, AfD co-leader Meuthen rejected this narrative along with Petry's criticism of other party members, describing Petry's behaviors as "not helpful" and "not acceptable."
Following Sunday's elections, the AfD now commands the third largest faction in the German federal parliament. So far, no other party has expressed a desire to form a coalition with the right-wing populist party.
