Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany ( AfD ) leader Alice Weidel is a striking contrast to the party she represents. A gay woman raising two sons with her Sri Lankan-born partner, she leads a party that opposes same-sex marriage and champions ‘traditional family values’.
Weidel’s administration has coincided with a rise in AfD support, making it Germany’s most popular far-right group since World War II. In the regional elections, the party secured over 20 % of the vote, finishing second only to Friedrich Merz’s traditional CDU/CSU ally on Sunday.
Mature is present in the room.
Weidel was born in Gütersloh, West Germany. Before working at Goldman Sachs and after the Bank of China, she first studied business and economics. She spent six years in China, where she earned a degree and developed fluency in Mandarin. She is from the West, unlike some in her party, and the AfD draws its power from former East Germany.
Weidel’s career path sets her apart from the group’s common account, but experts say her business-like picture helps the AfD charm to middle-class voters. Oliver Lembcke, a social scientist at the University of Bochum, was quoted as saying to Reuters news agency that” she seems like the child in the room among all these lunatics and fanatics.”
Anti-immigration approach
Weidel has thoroughly embraced the AfD’s separatist and anti-immigration position. She initially joined the organization because it opposed bailouts for the euro, but later she shifted her attention to European identity politics and migration.
She has described refugees as “burqas, ladies in hijabs, knife-wielding people on government advantages and additional good-for-nothing people”, information Reuters.
Although her remarks received a lot of criticism, they still resonated with the group’s supporters. At a convention earlier this year, she called for the “large-scale repatriation of europeans”, emphasising each sound: “re-mi-gra-tion”, as the audience cheered.
Weidel has even questioned climate change, expressed scepticism about Covid vaccinations, and endorsed the far-right” Great Replacement” hypothesis, which claims that rulers are deliberately replacing indigenous populations with immigrants, generally targeting light Europeans.
In an online conversation with billionaire Elon Musk, she claimed that the Nazis were” not right-wing” and described Hitler as” a socialist, socialist guy”, information Sky information.
AfD ‘ strongly anchored’ in European politics
At an AfD protest on Sunday, Weidel said that the group was then “firmly anchored” in Germany’s social structure after securing second place in national elections. She also cautioned the mainstream parties that” we will beat them in the next election” if they refused to support the AfD.
Despite her personal life conflicting with the group’s liberal principles, Weidel has avoided focusing on her personality. She has rejected same-sex unions as being irrelevant and has vehemently rejected the notion of queerness. She asserts that the AfD is the only group that will show animosity toward queer people from Muslim immigrants.
Nazi father
Weidel’s home story has come under scrutiny. Her father, Hans Weidel, was a Nazi determine appointed by Adolf Hitler, anything she says she simply discovered through scientists, European newspapers Die Welt reported. Despite this, she continues to advocate for more stringent emigration regulations and a vote on appointing an EU member.
Weidel refers to Margaret Thatcher, the erstwhile British Prime Minister, as her inspiration. If the alliance may address what she describes as her “democratic deficit,” she wants Germany to hold a referendum on EU membership in the manner of Brexit.
