In the AfD’s ten-year history, this is the first time that the party has put forward a candidate for chancellor. This underlines its claim to government.
Alice Weidel, the AfD’s first candidate for chancellor.
Maryam Majd / Getty Images Europe
After Angela Merkel and Annalena Baerbock, Alice Weidel is the third candidate for chancellor in Germany and the first for the AfD. Merkel ruled as CDU chancellor for 16 years. Annalena Baerbock, today’s Green Foreign Minister, failed in the last federal election due, among other things, to errors in the election campaign. Weidel is also likely to be denied the chancellorship, but regardless of the result in February, his candidacy stands for one thing above all: the Alternative for Germany’s increased claim to power.
In the AfD’s twelve-year history, it is the first time that the party has put forward a candidate for chancellor. With poll numbers between 18 and 19 percent, the AfD has no real chance of becoming chancellor.
Due to a lack of support from other parties, there would be no majority for an AfD chancellor in the Bundestag. However, the right-wing party is guaranteed to attract public attention with its candidacy – Weidel could also receive an invitation to the much-watched interviews with the candidate for chancellor on television.
Tino Chrupalla, Weidel’s co-party leader, described the decision as a “historic day” and wanted to contest the election campaign “as a team with a striker”. In a special meeting he suggested to the federal executive board that Alice Weidel be nominated as candidate for chancellor, Chrupalla said in the press conference on Saturday in Berlin, and he himself was “very fine” with that. The proposal was unanimously accepted by the federal executive board and the state leaders.
He had already publicly declared in September that he would support Weidel – this paved the way for her. The candidacy is to be formally confirmed at the AfD party conference on January 11th in Riesa.
AfD leader Weidel declares war on the “tax state”.
Weidel, visibly pleased, said it was a big day for the party and a big day for Germany. Since the AfD is the second strongest force nationwide in election surveys, it is very clear that it has a claim to government. “We want to move Germany forward,” Weidel told the journalists present.
In her subsequent statement, she focused on the topics of the economy, migration and foreign policy. Germany is “the ghost driver in energy supply,” she said, and called for a return to nuclear power, the extension of the operating times of coal-fired power plants and cheap natural gas – “no matter where it comes from and through which pipeline it is delivered,” she explained, without explicitly mentioning Russia to name.
A declared goal of the AfD is to reduce taxes and abolish CO2 pricing. According to Weidel, this is “unconstitutional” and was introduced by a “voracious tax state”. Weidel also announced: “We are canceling all social benefits for foreign citizens who have come to us and who have never paid into our social system.” Instead of cash benefits, there would be benefits in kind, if the AfD would take on government responsibility, said Weidel.
AfD wants to abolish broadcasting fees
Alice Weidel also referred to the AfD’s election campaign slogan, which plays with “time for” in various variations. “It is also time for peace,” she emphasized. The AfD strictly rejects arms deliveries to Ukraine, “no tanks, no weapons,” said Weidel. She spoke out particularly vehemently against the delivery of the Taurus cruise missile. In their opinion, such a delivery would make Germany a warring party, explained Weidel.
When asked by a journalist how she wanted to deal with the media, Weidel said that public broadcasting had changed into a “government radio”. This became particularly clear through the political Corona measures and the “attempted forced vaccination,” said Weidel. She also criticized the media’s lack of attention to Corona policy. Finally, she spoke out in favor of “significantly more competition” in the media market and called for the complete abolition of broadcasting fees.
Weidel finally thanked her co-party leader for the support. She announced that she would run again as a dual leader with Tino Chrupalla in the next legislative period. Since June 2022, the duo has been acting as dual leadership, called “federal spokesperson” in the AfD.
The 45-year-old Weidel has been part of the party leadership since 2017 and previously formed a dual leadership with Alexander Gauland. She commutes between Germany and Switzerland, where she raises two children with her partner, a film producer.
