Germany's AfD party lurching further right as leader pulls out of election

Frauke Petry says she will not run as candidate in elections in September amid frustration at lack of coherent strategy

Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) is expected to lurch further to the right at its party conference this weekend after its last self-declared moderates conceded defeat to hardliners, and former members warned that regional branches were being "flooded by the far far right".

The AfD, which was launched in 2013 by a group of academics and liberal economists, used to emphatically reject the "rightwing populist" tag, insisting that its Euroscepticism was relatively mild and Germany needed immigration due to its demographic decline.