German far-right party elects new leaders after co-chairman quit over 'radical' policies

Tino Chrupalla will head Alternative for Germany with Alice Weidel

Tino Chrupalla, centre left, AfD federal chairman and AfD parliamentary group leader, with Alice Weidel at the AfD's federal party conference after her election. AP

The far-right Alternative for Germany party on Saturday elected two high-profile members to its leadership for the next two years after a co-chairman resigned in January saying it had become too radical.

Delegates voted for remaining co-chairman Tino Chrupalla to lead the party with Alice Weidel.

The vote became necessary after MEP Joerg Meuthen stepped down in January, saying that the party risked being driven into "total isolation and ever further toward the political edge" with its current course.

Mr Meuthen was the party's third leader to quit since Alternative for Germany was founded in 2013.

All cited extremist tendencies within the party that have also made it the subject of scrutiny by Germany's domestic intelligence service.

Initially formed in opposition to the euro currency, the party swung to the right in 2015 to capitalise on resentment against migrants and it entered the federal parliament for the first time in 2017.

Lately, it has vocally opposed almost all pandemic restrictions and western sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine.

The party, known by its German acronym AfD, received just over 10 per cent of the vote in last year's national election.

Delegates at AfD's congress in the eastern town of Riesa also voted on Friday in favour of changing its statutes so that the party can be headed by a single leader.

The proposal was championed by Bjoern Hoecke, the party's leader in central Thuringia state, who is considered to be on the extreme right of the party and has espoused revisionist views of Germany's Nazi past.