BERLIN (Reuters) - A regional parliament has lifted the immunity of the best known politician in the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, opening the way for prosecutors to pursue possible perjury charges against her.

Frauke Petry, leader of the anti immigration party Alternative fuer Deutschland (AFD) before a press conference in Berlin, Germany, May 15, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

Frauke Petry, who is the AfD’s co-chairwoman, has been dogged by allegations that she lied under oath to a committee of the Saxony parliament about how the party’s campaign for the 2014 election in the state was financed.

The ending of her immunity from prosecution adds to the right-wing party’s problems less than four weeks before a national election. Weakened by infighting, it has bled support over the last year as voters’ concerns about immigration have eased.

Prosecutors have pursued the case against Petry, who denies the allegations, for more than a year.

Her immunity as a member of the Saxony’s parliament ended at midnight, a spokesman for the assembly said.

A spokesman for prosecutors in the state capital Dresden said they would await written confirmation of that from the parliament’s president before any further proceedings could be agreed upon.

The AfD is polling between 7 and 10 percent in opinion surveys - well down from a high of 15.5 percent at the end of 2016 but still clearing the 5-percent threshold needed to enter the federal parliament in the Sept. 24 national election.

Petry cuts an increasingly isolated figure in the AfD, which she transformed from an anti-euro party at its founding in 2013 into a group that taps into voters’ concerns about migration.

The party soared in the polls after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision in 2015 to open Germany’s borders to migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond, of whom more than a million have since arrived.

At a party conference in April, Petry suffered a humiliating defeat when delegates refused to discuss her plan to shift the party towards the mainstream.</s>Saxony’s state parliament lifted the parliamentary immunity of Frauke Petry, the co-chair of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, DW reports.

Petry is accused of lying under oath about campaign financing of the 2014 campaign in Saxony. AfD financed that campaign through a series of loans from its candidates. When one of its candidates refused the loan, he was taken off the party list.

Petry testified to an electoral oversight committee in November 2015 that she did not know of the loans at the time. That testimony has been disputed by a Die Linke MP. If found guilty, Petry faces six months to one year in jail.

Following the lifting of her immunity, prosecutors are bracing to press charges of alleged perjury. On the countdown for Germany’s national legislative elections on September 24, AfD is polling in the region of 9%, which means it will pass the 5% threshold and enter the Bundestag.</s>BERLIN (AP) - A German state legislature has lifted a prominent nationalist leader's immunity from prosecution, paving the way for a possible indictment over allegations she lied under oath.

The investigation of Frauke Petry, a national co-leader of Alternative for Germany, centers on different accounts that she and another party official gave to a parliamentary committee about a candidate list for a 2014 regional election.

Ivo Klatte, a spokesman for Saxony's regional parliament, told news agency dpa Tuesday no objections were raised against lifting Petry's immunity after a panel recommended the move - backed by Petry herself, who says she wants to clear her name.

FILE- In this April 22, 2017 file photo Frauke Petry looks thoughtful at the party convention of Germany's nationalist party AfD (Alternative for Germany) in Cologne, Germany. A German state legislature has lifted the prominent nationalist leader's immunity from prosecution, paving the way for a possible indictment over allegations she lied under oath. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, file)

The party hopes to enter Germany's national parliament in an election Sept. 24. Petry is one of its best-known figures but her influence has declined in recent months.</s>A German state legislature has lifted a prominent nationalist leader's immunity from prosecution, paving the way for a possible indictment over allegations she lied under oath.

The investigation of Frauke Petry, a national co-leader of Alternative for Germany, centers on different accounts that she and another party official gave to a parliamentary committee about a candidate list for a 2014 regional election.

Ivo Klatte, a spokesman for Saxony's regional parliament, told news agency dpa Tuesday no objections were raised against lifting Petry's immunity after a panel recommended the move — backed by Petry herself, who says she wants to clear her name.

The party hopes to enter Germany's national parliament in an election Sept. 24. Petry is one of its best-known figures but her influence has declined in recent months.</s>BERLIN (Reuters) - A regional branch of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) split in two on Wednesday as a war of words erupted over the party's handling of an anti-Semitism row with one senior member sharply criticizing national co-leader Frauke Petry.

The AfD has won growing popular support in Germany due in part to Europe's migrant crisis, which has seen more than a million refugees arrive in the country over the past year. It now has seats in eight of Germany's 16 state assemblies.

However, the party encompasses a wide range of views which has led to a degree of internal strife. Wolfgang Gedeon, a doctor turned AfD lawmaker in the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, caused outrage last month for his view that Holocaust denial was a legitimate expression of opinion.

Denial of the Nazi Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed, is a crime in Germany.

A row ensued with the head of the AfD group in the state assembly, Joerg Meuthen, failing to win enough support for Gedeon to be expelled.

The crisis came to a head on Tuesday when 13 lawmakers, led by Meuthen, quit the parliamentary party in the state and national leader Frauke Petry rushed to Stuttgart. That led to Gedeon's resignation.

On Wednesday, the AfD parliamentary group -- originally numbering 23 -- officially split into two. Meuthen, widely seen as a moderate within the AfD, leads one group and Petry has said she backs the remaining members, minus Gedeon.

Petry's involvement has incensed some in the party who do not wholeheartedly support her.

In comments widely seen to undermine Petry, AfD Vice Chair on a national level, Alexander Gauland, launched a broadside against her, saying her dash to the state had merely helped escalate the crisis.

"I would never have thought of becoming politically active in (the state of) Saxony without Frauke Petry if there were difficulties there," he told Reuters Television. Petry is head of the AfD in the eastern state of Saxony.

A Forsa poll on Wednesday put nationwide support for the AfD at 9 percent, down 1 percentage point from the previous survey. Germany holds a federal parliamentary election next year.

In May, Gauland caused a storm by saying Germans would not want to live next door to national soccer star Jerome Boateng, born in Berlin to a Ghanaian father.</s>BERLIN (Reuters) - The three-year-old anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party has established a solid base among those Germans who demonstrate a political allegiance, a study showed on Wednesday.

The study by the German Institute for Economic Research and Humboldt University reinforces expectations that the anti-immigration party will make a strong showing in state elections next month in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the east.

The party established three years ago by eurosceptics as a platform to oppose euro zone bailouts has been boosted by the influx of a record number of migrants into Europe last year.

The AfD entered three new state parliaments in elections earlier this year and now has deputies in half of Germany's 16 state assemblies.

The study found that some 5 percent of Germans who have supported a political party over a long period expressed sympathy for the AfD. Five percent is the threshold required to enter local parliaments and the Bundestag national parliament.

This threshold is also interpreted by the authors of the study as a sign that the AfD has harnessed enough loyal supporters to secure its survival over the medium- and long-term.

The AfD also draws support from people who have never voted before and supporters of far-right parties like the National Democratic Party (NPD), the study found, which partially explains its double digit percentage share of the vote in state elections.

The study, which drew on interviews with more than 40,000 people who have supported a political party over a long period of time, election results, opinion polls and political surveys, also found that AfD supporters tend of be mostly male, under 30, unemployed, poorly educated and living in the east of Germany.

The AfD is polling at around 10 percent nationally. In March, it won 24 percent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, to become the second-biggest party in the state parliament. It also won nearly 15 percent in the prosperous southern region of Baden-Wuerttemberg and over 12 percent in Rhineland Palatinate.
The Landtag of the Free State of Saxony has lifted the immunity of Frauke Petry, Party Chair in the Alternative for Germany party, opening the way for prosecutors to pursue possible perjury charges against her concerning statements made to a committee of the Saxony parliament about how the party’s campaign for the 2014 election was financed.