Arthur Wagner, a politician from Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has converted to Islam and left his party's executive board.
Mr Wagner, a German of Russian origin, joined the party in 2015 and was with the AfD when its popularity soared during the 2017 federal election as it campaigned on stricter border control.
Mr Wagner hasn't given any particular reason for leaving the party and wanted privacy when pressed by German media. A spokesperson for the party said he had converted to Islam and he had officially quit his leadership role in the eastern state of Brandenburg as of 11 January.
“It is a private matter,” Mr Wagner told Tagesspiegel newspaper when pressed on the matter.
Party spokesperson Daniel Friese also said that he left for personal reasons and was never pushed, according to Deutsche Welle News.
He also said AfD's national party included groups representing the interests of Muslims, as well as Christians and homosexuals.
“Mr. Wagner resigned on January 11 from the state board on his own volition. Only afterwards was it known that he had converted to Islam,” Friese told Reuters.
Wagner declined to comment on his conversion. “He does not want to speak with the press. He believes it is a private affair,” the party spokesman said.
Protesters in Hannover as the populist AfD party meets in the Lower Saxony state capital for a congress to elect a new party leadership. Source: AAP
The AfD emerged in 2013, originally as an anti-euro party, but it gathered national attention for its anti-Islam and anti-migration campaign and strongly criticising German Chancellor Angela Merkel's controversial decision to admit more than a million refugees in 2015.
It entered the Bundestag coming third in last year's federal election, winning 12.6 per cent of the vote.
- With Reuters
