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Far-right leader Petry set to lose immunity as perjury probe looms

The Immunity Committee in Saxony recommended lifting the immunity of right-wing politician Frauke Petry on Thursday over a year after accusations she committed perjury began.

Published: 17 August 2017 11:23 CEST
Far-right leader Petry set to lose immunity as perjury probe looms
Frauke Petry. Photo: DPA.

The 42-year-old co-chair of Germany's AfD party was accused of lying to the state electoral committee over financing for the party's 2014 state election campaign in Saxony. But Petry denied these accusations.

READ ALSO: Far-right leader Petry under investigation for perjury

The state committee in Dresden's unanimous vote on Thursday in favour of abolishing Petry’s immunity means that an investigation of allegations that she lied under oath can now be pursued.

German prosecutors began preliminary investigations into the financing of Petry's campaign in May last year.

Petry had considered walking away from politics earlier this year. In April she decided not to campaign as the frontrunner for her party in the upcoming September 24th federal elections.

SEE ALSO: Far-right AfD set to become third largest party in German parliament, poll finds

POLITICS

‘Dexit’ would cost Germany 690 billion euros and millions of jobs: economists

According to the German Economic Institute (IW), Germany's exit from the EU – the so-called Dexit – would cost millions of jobs and significantly reduce the country's prosperity.

Published: 19 May 2024 18:04 CEST
'Dexit' would cost Germany 690 billion euros and millions of jobs: economists

In a study presented by the Cologne-based institute on Sunday, the authors showed that a Dexit would cause real GDP to drop by 5.6 percent after just five years. This means that Germany would lose 690 billion euros in value creation during this time.

In addition, Germany as an export nation is dependent on trade with other countries, especially with other EU countries, warned the authors. Companies and consumers in Germany would therefore feel the consequences “clearly” and around 2.5 million jobs would be lost.

The study is based on the consequences of Britain’s exit from the EU, such as the loss of trade agreements and European workers.

Taken together, the losses in economic output in Germany in the event of a Dexit would be similar to those seen during Covid-19 and the energy cost crisis in the period from 2020 to 2023, the authors warned.

Brexit is therefore “not an undertaking worth imitating,” warned IW managing director Hubertus Bardt. Rather, Brexit is a “warning for other member states not to carelessly abandon economic integration.”

Leader of the far-right AfD party Alice Weidel described Great Britain’s exit from the European Union at the beginning of the year as a “model for Germany.”

In an interview published in the Financial Times, Weidel outlined her party’s approach in the event her party came to power: First, the AfD would try to resolve its “democratic deficit” by reforming the EU. If this was not successful, a referendum would be called on whether Germany should remain in the EU.

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