German far right: Expatriate and gay, who is Alice Weidel, leading figure of the AfD?

At 45, this “Iron Lady” in a velvet glove has a slightly unusual profile on the far right: a lesbian living in Switzerland with a woman of Sri Lankan origin, mother of two adopted boys, she yet was officially crowned this weekend as candidate for chancellor by the delegates gathered at the congress of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is on a roll in the run-up to the legislative elections on February 23.

An Insa poll published on Saturday places this anti-system, anti-migrant and pro-Russian party in second position and up to 22%.

Even though the AfD has no chance of governing, as no other party is ready to form a coalition with it, Alice Weidel has already managed to establish herself as the dominant figure in the campaign. The one whom the AfD describes as the “leading woman” of the party’s gondola, is taking advantage of the launching pad offered to her by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk.

This close friend of US President-elect Donald Trump is increasing his support, even organizing a live debate with her this week on his X platform.

The recipe seems to work. Alice Weidel “is the perfect fig leaf for the party” often accused of proximity to neo-Nazi circles, judges the weekly The mirror. “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,” adds -he.

Coming from a wealthy background, this former member of the liberal pro-business FDP party, who often wears a white pearl necklace and a pantsuit, has said in the past that she had Margaret Thatcher and her forced restructuring of the British economy.

Fluent in Mandarin, Alice Weidel, who has lived in China and the United States, has a significantly more international profile than many AfD members. It also comes from the rich region of Baden-Württemberg, in the west, while its movement is especially strong in the east of the country.

The co-president of the movement belongs, according to Professor Wolfgang Schroeder of the University of Kassel, to the moderate branch of the AfD “which aspires to an independent existence, to the right of the conservatives” and not to the more radical wing “ which defends a deeply ethnic, authoritarian and nationalist position.

“As a woman, from western Germany and homosexual, she has some problems making the connection with the ideology of her party,” Anna-Sophie Heinze, a political scientist at the University of Trier, recently commented in an interview with AFP. Despite the continued radicalization of the AfD, and unlike other “redacted” personalities, this doctor in economics, who worked at the Goldman Sachs bank, remained.

Over time, its image of moderation fades. As the elections approach, Alice Weidel, under pressure from the powerful identity wing of Björn Höcke’s AfD, wants to give assurances so as not to be outflanked. Faced with Elon Musk, she did not hesitate to describe Adolf Hitler as a “communist” and “socialist”, which earned her accusations of historical revisionism.

During the AfD congress in Riesa, which ends on Sunday, his speech “had never been so radical”, comments the television channel NTV. Alice Weidel fully embraced the idea of ​​a mass expulsion of foreign people or people of foreign origin: “I say it very honestly, if it has to be called remigration, then it will be called remigration,” she said. hammered. Unlike other European far-right parties, it is as polarized as possible, close to the Austrian FPÖ.

While Marine Le Pen in France, with whom she maintains difficult relations, has engaged in a demonization of the RN, by distancing herself from the sulphurous legacy of her father Jean-Marie, Alice Weidel and the AfD “have still an anti-system posture,” notes Mr. Schroeder.

And “compared to Marine Le Pen in France, or Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Alice Weidel has less experience” in political combat, notes Mr. Schroeder, “the first two play in the Bundesliga and she in the fourth division”.