BERLIN — The political establishment has dismissed Germany’s new anti-euro party as a fear-mongering populist aberration that could implode even before a looming national election.
But the first congress of the Alternative for Germany showed that the party, started only a few months ago by a group of academics, journalists and businessmen, was striking a chord with voters and might prove an influential force in September.
More than 1,500 party supporters from across Germany packed into the InterContinental Hotel in central Berlin on Sunday to elect the party leadership and formally approve a policy program that has one objective above all: an end to the euro and a return of the mark.
The meeting was not without the sort of hitches one would expect from a new party that is virtually devoid of experienced, professional politicians.
A speech by the party founder, Bernd Lucke, was interrupted at one point by a man waving a German flag. And delegates interjected repeatedly to remind leaders on the stage about proper protocol as motions were voted on.
Still, the mood in the conference room where the congress was held bordered on the euphoric at times. And those who attended — mainly older men in suits, with a sprinkling of middle-age women — said they were amazed at how much interest the party was generating among friends and family members.
“There is huge potential,” said Alexander Gauland, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, the Christian Democrats, for 50 years before he defected and signed up with Alternative for Germany a month ago.
“What has become clear over the past weeks,” he said, “is that there are many people who feel they are not being heard by the big parties, especially when it comes to euro zone bailouts.”
Unlike some other anti-euro movements in Europe, like the Dutch Freedom party of Geert Wilders or Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France, the German party says it is neither nationalist nor anti-immigration. Its program calls for policies to entice more skilled foreign workers to Germany.
The party supports an “orderly” dismantling of the euro zone because it believes that to be in Germany’s best interests, but also because it says it would help southern members of the currency bloc that are struggling with crushing recessions and rising unemployment.
Above all, those attending in Berlin expressed frustration with the lack of debate in Germany’s big parties over policies that have led to multibillion-euro bailouts for Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain since the debt crisis first erupted more than three years ago.
The rescues were backed not only by members of Ms. Merkel’s center-right coalition, but also by the opposition Social Democrats and Greens.
“This party offers Germany a chance. It is talking about themes that were taboo for decades. Until A.F.D. came along, there was no alternative, and that is undemocratic,” said Henry Strasen, a 47-year-old who runs a gasoline station in Lübben, south of Berlin, and previously supported the Free Democrats, junior partners in Ms. Merkel’s coalition. A.F.D. is the party’s German abbreviation.
Thomas Rang, a 62-year-old real estate developer who was also a supporter of the Free Democrats before he quit in 2011, said he sympathized with southern member states that were “trapped by the euro.”
“They can’t devalue. They are growing resentful of Germany. I’m for Europe, but not for this kind of Europe,” said Mr. Rang, who traveled from Düsseldorf for the congress.
Since the party was founded in early March, more than 7,500 people have joined. A spokeswoman, Dagmar Metzger, said three times as many members had come from center-right parties in Ms. Merkel’s governing coalition as from the center-left camp of the Social Democrats and Greens.
Opinion polls show that one in four Germans would consider supporting Alternative for Germany. Despite that, most pollsters say it will be difficult for the party to exceed the threshold of 5 percent of total votes needed to enter Parliament in September, although few are ruling out the possibility.
“The question is whether, on election day, people who sympathize with this party actually vote for it,” said Frank Decker, a political scientist at Bonn University.
That will depend on a number of factors.
The party will need to collect 2,000 signatures in each of Germany’s 16 states over the coming months to participate in the election at all.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/business/global/in-germany-a-party-aims-to-end-euro.html?partner=rss&emc=rss