German Elites Drawn to Anti-Euro Party, Spelling Trouble for Merkel
BERLIN With less than six months to go before parliamentary elections in Germany, a new political party that is calling for an end to the European currency union is gaining strength.
The party, Alternative for Germany, held its first formal party congress on Sunday at a Berlin hotel. It has emerged as a wild card ahead of the September elections and poses a potential threat to Chancellor Angela Merkels re-election prospects.
The question is whether the party is experiencing the short-lived buzz of a political fad or represents the beginning of a significant movement that could jeopardize the struggling euro.
The new party is driven by a collection of elites, not a groundswell from the streets, starting with Bernd Lucke, 50, a Hamburg economics professor. Mr. Lucke, along with many of the new partys supporters, previously belonged to Ms. Merkels conservative Christian Democratic Union before the Greek bailouts forced him to reconsider.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/world/europe/elites-flock-to-anti-euro-party-alternative-for-germany.html