Rift on the right

FOUNDED in 2013, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has wreaked havoc in German politics with its mix of Eurosceptic views and highbrow credentials. One of its early nicknames was the “professors’ party”, because several founders, including Bernd Lucke, one of its three spokesmen, used to teach economics. With this academic prowess, the AfD became the first respectable party to break a post-war taboo on questioning the country’s destiny at the heart of European institutions.

But in common with maverick parties on the less respectable right—the UK Independence Party has just had a leadership row, and France’s National Front (FN) has expelled its founder—the German party is suffering badly from internal fissures.