A German politician has left his far-right party, Alternative for Germany, or AfD, to start a new party with a logo once used by Austrian Nazis in the 1930s. The small blue cornflower was used as a secret symbol by the National Socialists in 1930s Austria. The politician, André Poggenburg, resigned from his post as an AfD regional leader last year after calling Turks “camel drivers” and immigrants with dual nationality a “homeless mob we no longer want.” His new party, which translates to Awakening of German Patriots in English, will use a cornflower against the background of a German flag as its symbol. Poggenburg told Welt, a German newspaper, that he was opposed to a “shift to the left” in the AfD, which has spent the last months ridding itself of extreme elements in an attempt to appear more moderate. He also accused it of “hysteria” over the possibility it might come under observation by German security services. Poggenburg was one of the most controversial figures in the AfD, and has repeatedly come under fire for his use of Nazi-era vocabulary. “Unfortunately, the developments inside the AfD in the last weeks and months has shown that it isn’t really my political home any longer,” he wrote in an email announcing his departure.
