Dince the knife attack in Aschaffenburg on Wednesday January 22, Alice Weidel has targeted the conservative party. On And when Friedrich Merz, his successor and favorite in the polls, promises an about-face in migration policy, “daily expulsions” and the “systematic refoulement” of undocumented immigrants at the borders, the head of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD ) proposes that she vote for a common law on Wednesday January 29 in the Bundestag “so that there are no more deaths because of the sanitary cordon”, as she concludes her open letter addressed to his conservative counterpart.
The stick and the carrot: she sets a trap for her rival, resolutely opposing any alliance with the far-right party. In the emotion caused by this new attack, the fourth in seven months on German soil, the candidate is banking coldly on the political gain to be made. This umpteenth knife attack feeds his narrative in this campaign, that of murderous and uncontrolled immigration and the incompetence of the parties in power to ensure their primary mission: the security of citizens.
“Remigration”, pillar of the AfD
She is not for nothing nicknamed the “Ice Princess” or the “Iron Lady” for her admiration for her role model, Margaret Thatcher. The attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market catapulted immigration to the top of the agenda in the German electoral campaign. Temporarily relegated to the background by the return of Donald Trump to the White House, the subject is returning to fertile ground. According to a poll by public broadcaster ARD, 77 percent of Germans answered yes to the question “do we need a fundamentally different asylum and refugee policy so that fewer people come to us?” “. To this complex question, Alice Weidel answers with a single word: “remigration”.
This granddaughter of a military judge of the Third Reich not only succeeds in the synthesis of a party, she personifies its contradictions
Popularized in France by Éric Zemmour, the concept of sending back – by force if necessary – foreign people, even those who have become German, to their country of origin has found its place in the AfD program. Also for the first time, its figurehead Alice Weidel spoke it at a meeting, during the congress in Riesa (Saxony) on January 11. In a party eternally torn between its bourgeois and revolutionary temptations, it was a hand extended towards its extremist fringe.
In a white turtleneck with a bun or a blouse with a pearl necklace, the soon-to-be 46-year-old chancellor candidate (on February 6) embodies the face of a party that assumes its radicalism. He wants to leave the euro and eliminate the free movement of workers in the European Union. In terms of the environment, there are plans to leave the Paris climate agreement. She said it from the podium, pointing her index finger at the audience: “When we are in charge, we will demolish all the wind turbines. Down with the windmills of shame! » The AfD is banking on fossil fuels and the import of Russian gas after the recommissioning of the Nord Stream pipeline.
-The “fig leaf” of his party
In an interview with “The American Conservative” magazine published in early January, Alice Weidel described her country as “slave” to the United States. While happily taking advantage of the sounding board offered by the social network X, whose owner Elon Musk, suspected of having made a double Nazi salute during Trump's inauguration, clearly displays his support for the AfD.
The former financial analyst at Goldman Sachs, granddaughter of a military judge of the IIIe Reich, not only succeeds in the synthesis of a party, it personifies its contradictions. Common-law partner of Sarah Bossard, a migrant of Sri Lankan origin, they are raising two boys in Switzerland. Alice Weidel, however, defends a program defining “the family, made up of father, mother and children, as the basic unit of society”.
Historical untruths – she claimed Adolf Hitler was a communist – do not harm the success of her campaign
Alice Weidel is “the perfect fig leaf for the party” with numerous connections to neo-Nazi circles, judges the weekly “Der Spiegel”. “When someone says that the AfD is misogynistic, homophobic or racist, the cadres respond that they have Weidel and therefore the AfD cannot be – even if it actually is. »
The historical untruths launched during his discussion on X with Elon Musk – Alice Weidel claimed that Adolf Hitler was a communist – do not harm the success of his campaign. She runs a dynamic training course, firmly anchored in second position, with around 20% voting intentions. The Alternative, boycotted for the formation of coalitions, has no chance of coming to power after next month's vote, but has every chance of becoming the leading opposition force.
