Alice Weidel has moved to the centre of Germany’s political storm after her far-right AfD won a historic 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt. The former Goldman Sachs banker is openly gay, has a Sri Lankan-born partner and a family based in Switzerland. Yet she leads a party campaigning on strict immigration controls and a traditional definition of family.
The Alice Weidel paradox: Her family life versus AfD policy
The Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 43.8% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, more than twice the 17.2% secured by Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats. It took 39 of the 83 seats in the state parliament. She joined the AfD in 2013, when the young party was largely known for its opposition to eurozone bailouts.
Because parts of the AfD’s programme take a different approach to family and LGBTQ+ policy, that private life has repeatedly drawn attention.
The question now is whether it can find enough support to govern, with Germany’s mainstream parties facing renewed pressure over the political “firewall” that has kept the AfD out of government. She has argued that tighter immigration controls would make gay people safer and has previously said that expanding same-sex marriage rights was not a political priority for her. He said his government supports deporting people without a legal right to remain but drew a line between that policy and the AfD’s plans.
That leaves the AfD just three seats short of a majority. Weidel rejects claims that her personal life makes her political position contradictory. As the AfD moved towards tougher positions on immigration, national identity and social policy, Weidel rose with it. Merz argued that removing large numbers of workers with immigrant backgrounds would also hurt the German economy.
