The Blue Party (Germany)

Frauke Petry, was the leader of The Blue Party

Founding

The party was formally founded by Michael Muster, a lawyer and long-time confidante of Petrys, one week before the 2017 federal election and registered with the Federal Returning Officer on September 26, 2017. Muster is the husband of the former Saxon state parliament member Kirsten Muster, who like Petry has left the Saxon AfD parliamentary group.

In November 2017, a citizens' forum called the "Blaue Wende" was founded. There it is possible to get involved regardless of party affiliation, whereby the party primarily fulfills the purpose of being able to run in elections. The form in which the open citizens' forums and the formally organized party should be linked remained open. On October 14, 2017, Petry confirmed that she would join the party “soon”.

Petry had already registered an Internet address “dieblauen.de” in July 2017, but stated on request that it was only an “idea”. She later said the new party would not have such a name.

Elections

The blues did not run for the 2019 European elections. In this regard, it has been speculated that the party was unable to collect the 4,000 supporter signatures required for a candidacy.

The party first appeared in the state elections in Saxony in 2019. The top candidate was Frauke Petry. The party received 7,786 votes, which corresponds to 0.4% of the valid votes.

In the state elections in Thuringia in 2019, the party received 857 of the state votes, which corresponds to 0.1% of the valid votes.

Resolution

Party leader Petry said on November 5, 2019 that the party would dissolve by the end of the year. This decision was justified with the poor results in the state elections in the same year: Neither in Saxony nor in Thuringia, the party made it into the parliaments. The resolution to dissolve was made at the member party conference in Döben, a district of Grimma.

According to Petry, the color blue refers on the one hand to the Bavarian CSU, whose politics the blue party wants to tie in nationwide, and on the other hand the color generally stands for “conservative and liberal politics” in Europe. It is also the color of the Finnish Blue Future, which has split off from it because of a "right shift" by the Basic Finns party. On the other hand, blue is also used by the AfD and the Austrian FPÖ.

Shortly after the 2017 federal election, the AfD had registered the brands “Blue Party”, “Blue Wende”, “Blue Group”, “The Blue”, “Blue Fraction” and “Blue Forum” and then had Petry warned. The Cologne Regional Court ruled in January 2019 that the blue party could continue to appear under this name. A short time later, the District Court of Munich I ruled that the party was not allowed to use the name as a trademark, e.g. B. when selling devotional objects. Petry appealed this decision, which was dismissed by the Munich Higher Regional Court in September 2019.

The present-day small party has no connection with the fictional Blue Party, which Toni Geller satirically portrayed on hand-made speeches during the Cologne Carnival; Geller also died in 2012.

On October 13, 2017, the blue party's program was published on the Citizens Forum website. It was decided at the founding meeting of the party on September 17, 2017. The party's political position can be described as liberal, democratic and conservative. In terms of content, it should be similar to the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). Furthermore, the goal was to build a new, rational conservative force within the party landscape, which is free from any national-chauvinist and right-wing populist positions. It was thus a party model in the conservative political area, which distanced itself from the growing radical forces within the AfD and the alienation of conservative basic positions within the CDU under Angela Merkel in order to counteract the increasing vacuum in the conservative camp.

• Official Webpage of "Bürgerforum Blaue Wende"