Church-going chemist gives German anti-immigrant party a 'friendly face'

Supporters of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AFD) attend a rally for the upcoming Saxony-Anhalt state elections in Bitterfeld, Germany, February 29, 2016. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

BITTERFELD-WOLFEN, Germany (Reuters) - Frauke Petry has been fiercely ambitious since her schooldays. Now the church-going chemist also has high ambitions for the political party she heads, the Alternative for Germany, and her weapon is the refugee crisis.

On her long path to becoming "the friendly face" of the right-wing AfD, Petry passed her school exams with flying colours, trained as an organist and choir director, gained a doctorate and founded a firm to make an environmentally-friendly plastic filling used in tyres.