BERLIN, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Former AfD leader Frauke Petry announced on Friday that she was establishing a new "Blue Party" which will compete with existing conservative forces for voters in Germany.
Petry told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) that she would shortly present the new citizen's platform "Blue Change" to which she hoped to attract voters on the right-wing spectrum of politics.
"Blue stands for conservative and libertarian politics in Germany and Europe" Petry said. She noted that the color had made the Christian Social Union (CSU) politically popular in Bavarian regional politics, a model which Petry now hoped to emulate "on a federal level".
Citizens could join the platform "blue change" without having to join the official "blue party" as a non-partisan means of becoming involved in conservative politics.
Petry hereby wanted to create a political alternative for Germans who held conservative views but could not identify with either the CSU, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) or the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
According to Petry, many Germans had only voted for the CDU, CSU, or AfD out of "desperation" on September 24. By contrast, the "Blue Party" would offer conservative voters "realistic solutions for the challenges of the years ahead."
Petry's new movement would further allow Germans with right-wing political views to "network" and "prepare for coming elections".
Despite establishing a new party, Petry told RND that she would retain the two seats she had won as an AfD politician in the Federal Parliament (Bundestag) and Saxonian regional assembly. Her mandate was "not the property" of the AfD, Petry insisted.
Petry described her transformation into an independent delegate as display of "loyalty" towards her voters and vowed to use the public resources she received for the sake of "professional policymaking".
