Bernd Lucke | |
|---|---|
 Lucke in 2017 | |
| Leader of theAlternative for Germany | |
| In office 14 April 2013 – 5 July 2015 Serving with Frauke Petry,Konrad Adam | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Jörg Meuthen |
| Leader of theLiberal Conservative Reformers | |
| In office 10 November 2018 – 28 September 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Stephanie Tsomakaeva(interim) |
| Succeeded by | Jürgen Joost |
| In office 19 July 2015 – 4 June 2016 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Ulrike Trebesius |
| Member of the European Parliament | |
| In office 1 July 2014 – 2 July 2019 | |
| Preceded by | multi-member district |
| Succeeded by | multi-member district |
| Constituency | Germany |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Bernd Lucke (1962-08-19)19 August 1962 (age 62) West Berlin,West Germany(now Germany) |
| Political party | We Citizens(2015–present) |
| Other political affiliations | CDU(1978–2011) Free Voters(2013) AfD(2013–2015) |
| Spouse | Dorothea Lucke |
| Children | 5 |
| Residence | Winsen (Luhe) |
| Alma mater | |
| Signature |  |
| Website | www |
Bernd Lucke (born 19 August 1962) is a German economist, professor, author and former politician. He co-founded theAlternative 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 amember 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 ofeconomics at theUniversity of Hamburg before helping to foundWahlalternative 2013 ("Electoral Alternative 2013"), which would become the AfD. Lucke served as the party's spokesman until he lost a leadership election toFrauke 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 partyWe Citizens (formerly known asLiberal-Konservative Reformer)[1][2][3] He failed to win reelection in 2019 and has since returned to an academic career.[4]
Lucke was born inWest Berlin in 1962. His father was an engineer, and his mother was a schoolteacher. In 1969, he moved toHaan inNorth Rhine-Westphalia.[5]
From 1982 to 1984, Lucke studied economics, history, and philosophy at theUniversity of Bonn; he undertook graduate studies in economics at the University of Bonn andUC Berkeley from 1984 to 1987. He completed his doctorate in 1991 with a dissertation on price stabilization in world agricultural markets underJürgen Wolters at theFree University of Berlin.[6] After thefall of the Berlin Wall, he worked in the Council of Economic Experts of theEast German Government and, after theGerman reunification, as an assistant to theSenate of Berlin. Lucke's research interests includesovereign default, news-driven business cycles, growth in developing countries,dynamic CGE models, andapplied econometrics.[6]
Lucke has been an advisor to theWorld Bank and avisiting scholar at theUniversity of British Columbia in Vancouver.[7] He is a frequent guest on political talk shows in Germany. He is married and has five children.[7][8][9]
Lucke joined theJunge Union, the youth wing of theChristian Democratic Union of Germany, as a teenager in response to the conditions of his relatives living inEast Germany under communism. He was a member of the CDU for thirty years until 2011 when he cancelled his membership in opposition to the party's eurozone rescue policies.[10] He first contested an election as a member of theFree Voters in the2013 Lower Saxony state election but was not elected.[11]
In 2013, he foundedWahlalternative 2013 ("Electoral Alternative 2013") withAlexander Gauland,Frauke Petry andKonrad Adam to oppose the German government's handling of theeurozone crisis. The group was later founded as theAlternative for Germany in April 2013, with Lucke as one of the party's three spokespeople. During his speech at the party's founding rally, he described the Euro currency as a "historic mistake."[12]
During a campaign speech inBremen on 24 August 2013, Lucke was attacked withpepper spray by two members ofAnti-fascist Action. Several people in the audience were treated for irritation of the eyes and throat.[13]
During the2013 German federal election, Lucke stood as the AfD's top list candidate inLower Saxony and for the directly elected seat ofHarburg but was not elected to either.[14] During the2014 European Parliament election, Lucke was elected as an MEP and negotiated for the AfD to join theEuropean Conservatives and Reformists. Lucke stated that the AfD's preferred partners in the European Parliament would be the BritishConservative Party and that they would not team up with "xenophobic" parties.[15]
Following the rise of thePegida protests in Germany, which were welcomed by some AfD state branches, Lucke stated that most of the arguments voiced by Pegida were legitimate and that the movement was a sign that politicians had not listened to concerns felt by ordinary people.[16][17]
On 4 July 2015, Lucke was displaced as leader of the partyAlternative for Germany (AfD) by his former deputy,Frauke Petry, in a leadership election after several months of infighting.[18] On 9 July 2015, Lucke left the Alternative for Germany, saying that the party had "fallen irretrievably into the wrong hands" after Petry's election and moved too far to the right by adopting what he termed as anti-foreigner positions. He also cited an “anti-Western, decidedlypro-Russian foreign and security policy orientation” and increasing calls to “pose the ‘system question’ regarding our parliamentary democracy” as reasons for his departure from the party.[19][20] On 19 July, he and other former members of the AfD founded a new party, theAlliance for Progress and Renewal (ALFA).[20] ALFA has since been renamedLiberal-Konservative Reformer ("Liberal Conservative Reformers," LKR) and laterWir Bürger ("Us Citizens").[21]
In 2015, Lucke was announced as the LKR's top candidate for the Bundestag ahead of the2017 German federal election. However, the LKR decided not to contest the election. The party stood in the2019 European Parliament election, but all its MEPs, including Lucke, lost their seats.
Lucke continued to work as a public commentator on economic and political affairs after his career as an MEP. In 2017, he argued that the German media should not "demonize" the AfD, arguing that voters for the party were concerned about legitimate issues but that the AfD leadership had become too extreme.[22] However, in 2019, Lucke supported a proposal by theFederal Office for the Protection of the Constitution to monitor the AfD and claimed the party now contained right-wing extremist elements that went against the German constitution.[23]
In October 2019, Lucke left politics and returned to academic work at theUniversity of Hamburg as an economics teacher. He was unable to deliver two lectures after being assaulted by anAntifa activist. At the same time, the student unionAStA called for Lucke's removal from the university due to his past association with the AfD and for what they argued was his role in helping the rise of the far-right in Germany.[24] Lucke also turned down an offer by the university to host online classes and, later that month, could resume lectures under police protection. Lucke has also worked as an opinion columnist forWelt am Sonntag since 2019.[25]
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