New anti-euro party takes aim at German chancellor

With only six months to go until German elections, a new anti-euro party is hoping to tap into growing euroscepticism in Europe’s top economy and may take votes away from Chancellor Angela Merkel.With more than one in four Germans in a recent poll saying they would consider voting for an anti-euro party, the new group, “Alternative for Germany,” is gearing up for a major push ahead of elections on Sept. 22.“We are constantly getting calls, letters or emails from people who want to join or want to support us,” said businesswoman Frauke Petry, head of communications at the party, which campaigns for Germany to leave the euro.The party counts “more than 2,000 members and donors,” a drop in the ocean compared to the nearly half a million Germans who are members of the two biggest parties, Merkel’s conservatives and the opposition Social Democrats.Its main aim now is to form regional groups in Germany’s 16 states before holding a founding congress on April 14 in Berlin to elect its candidates for the vote in September.Their first public meeting, in a well-to-do suburb of Frankfurt, the eurozone’s financial capital and home to the European Central Bank, attracted some 1,200 people to listen to speeches about the disadvantages of the euro.In the crowd were a large number of pensioners in their Sunday best, greying professors and liberal professionals, united in their belief that Germany has paid too much to keep the 17-nation eurozone afloat.The party’s creation has roused a great deal of interest in the media both within Germany and abroad and is supported by Hans-Olaf Henkel, a former head of the BDI, the country’s leading industry federation.They are encouraged by a recent survey in Focus magazine showing that 26 per cent of Germans would consider voting for an anti-euro party.The majority of the supporters would currently vote for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) or junior coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats, explained Petry.And the “Alternative for Germany” has not gone unnoticed at the senior echelons of the CDU.