Bernd Lucke

Bernd Lucke (born 19 August 1962) is a German economist, professor, author and former politician. He co-founded the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in 2013 and served as the party's federal chairman until July 2015, when he was displaced and left the party soon after. He had been elected a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the AfD in 2014 and served the five-year full term as a member of various other new parties, similar to some other former AfD MEPs. Lucke was a professor of economics at the University of Hamburg before helping to found Wahlalternative 2013 ("Electoral Alternative 2013"), which would become the AfD. Lucke served as the party's spokesman until he lost a leadership election to Frauke Petry in July 2015. Petry's election was considered a party shift to extremist positions; Lucke subsequently left the party. In July 2015, he and other former AfD members founded the political party We Citizens (formerly known as Liberal-Konservative Reformer) He failed to win reelection in 2019 and has since returned to an academic career.