Alice Weidel, the ultra-lesbian who wants to change Germany
His personal life contradicts the ideas defended by Alternative for Germany
Berlin"Alice for Germany(Alice for Germany). This slogan chanted by supporters of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) at their election rallies sounds very similar in German to "All for Germany(All for Germany), the slogan of the SA paramilitary group of dictator Adolf Hitler's party. Alice is Alice Weidel, the leader of the Alternative for Germany, which won 20.8 percent of the vote in the federal elections. AfD is the party with the second most seats in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, behind the conservatives and against the Social Democrats.
Alice Elisabeth Weidel was born on 6 February 1979 in Gütersloh in North Rhine-Westphalia. Her grandfather, Hans Weidel, was a member of the SS and a Nazi judge. The leader of the AfD studied economics and made a career in international finance before entering politics. She worked for Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Allianz Global Investors abroad. She speaks Chinese and English.
In 2013, she joined the Alternative for Germany, when the party had an economically liberal, populist, Eurosceptic and conservative profile. The AfD rejected the policy of the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel to save the euro and advocated an end to the multi-million euro financial bailouts, leaving the European Union and a return to the German mark.
She has been a member of parliament and leader of the opposition since 2017. Unlike Marine Le Pen, leader of the French far-right party National Rally (RN), who has tried not to demonise her party and normalise it, Weidel has further radicalised Alternative for Germany since taking over the reins of the party with AfD co-chair Tino Chrupalla in 2021.
Pro-Russian, anti-feminist and anti-ecologist
An admirer of former British Prime Minister, the "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher, the leader of the AfD is a Eurosceptic, pro-Russian, anti-immigration, anti-Muslim, anti-feminist, anti-ecologist and anti-woke. During the campaign she promised Germans to close borders and forced mass deportations of immigrants to their countries of origin.
Weidel, 46, is always well dressed, with her blonde hair tied back. She usually wears a dress with a black jacket and trousers, a white shirt or a white turtleneck sweater, a pearl necklace, a handkerchief in her jacket pocket and white trainers. It is her trademark.
The German far-right leader has a reputation for being a cold, arrogant and calculating woman, which has earned her the nickname "the ice princess" in some circles within her party.
A lesbian who defends the traditional family
Her personal life contradicts the ideas of her political party. "The AfD wants the family policy of the state and the federal states to be oriented towards the image of a family consisting of a father, a mother and children," reads the Alternative for Germany's programme, which believes that a child "needs a father and a mother" and opposes "gender ideology."
Weidel, who is lesbian, lives with her partner and her two children. "I am homosexual. I am not in the AfD despite my homosexuality, but because of my homosexuality," Weidel said in September 2017. She claims that in Germany there are areas where homosexuals cannot walk arm in arm without being harassed by "gangs of Muslims" who persecute them. The far-right leader advocates a tough approach to illegal immigration and the closing of borders. Her partner, Sarah Bossard, is originally from Sri Lanka, but was adopted as a child by a Swiss couple.
The German politician is reluctant to talk about her private life, because "if you open the door, you can't close it again." Her partner, who is a film producer, publishes selfies and videos on Instagram, some with her.
"Time for Germany" is the slogan of the election campaign, but she lives with her family between Switzerland and Germany. "I don't live in Switzerland, I have a residence. I have my domicile in Germany, I pay taxes here," she defends herself from criticism.
Alliance with Musk
Weidel has "signed" tech billionaire Elon Musk to campaign for the election. "Only AfD can save Germany," proclaimed the owner of Tesla, SpaceX and the social network X (formerly Twitter), urging Germans to vote for the far right.
In a conversation with Musk on the social network X, Weidel lamented that historians have labeled Hitler as "right-wing and conservative." The ultra-right leader He claims that Hitler was a "communist and a socialist". "We are exactly the opposite, the libertarian conservative party," he argued.
He has also been supported by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who considers Weidel "the future of Germany." The vice president of the United States, JD Vance, urged Munich a few days ago to lift the cordon sanitaire on far-right parties, in a clear interference in the German election campaign, which has been heavily criticized by other parties.
The existence of this cordon sanitaire or firewall will prevent Weidel from entering the German parliament. in the government of the conservative Friedrich Merz, although the AfD is the second most voted party. The leader of the CDU, who won the elections, has rejected any alliance with the ultras in order to govern.