he Blue Party manifesto reads like a toned-down version of the AfD's Islamophobic, anti-migrant rhetoric. Where the AfD maintains that "there is no place for Islam in Germany," the Blue Party takes the softer line of denouncing "political Islam." [...]
Carrying her youngest child, only a few months old, on her hip and speaking in more muted tones than she has become known for, Petry couched her opposition to Islam in terms of support for Israel and her anti-migrant beliefs as a matter of border security. She added that she did not stand for the "ethno-patriotism" of the far-right, but rather of protecting one's own culture. [...]
She spoke of the need for real conservative politics in the age of Chancellor Angela Merkel's centrism, garnering scattered applause for her defense of supporting "classic" family models in the face of, from her view, too much ado about "gender politics" in Berlin. In contrast to the AfD, which tends to be more Moscow-friendly, she spoke of a need to balance relations between Russia and the US. [...]
Assembling this kind of group could be a clever calculation on Petry's part. She made clear in her speech that the Blue Party should be seen not as a normal political party, but as a grassroots movement with few career politicians, and as unbeholden to special interest groups as possible.
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