Author: Lucie Sýkorová, HlidaciPes.org
Germany is facing early parliamentary elections in a month, and political parties are now hastily convening pre-election conventions. The convention of Alternative for Germany (AfD), which took place last weekend, attracted particular attention. The party, and especially its confirmed leader for the federal elections, Alice Weidel, surprised everyone with an even greater radicalization than before.
The AfD convention was held for the third time in the Saxon town of Riesa, which is known as a neo-Nazi stronghold. Around 600 AfD members gathered here, along with an estimated 10,000 protesters from all over Germany.
However, repeated mass protests have had no effect on the party’s direction and its leanings toward right-wing extremism. At the convention in Riesa, the AfD also presented its new election campaign slogan, “Alice für Deutschland” (Alice for Germany), which is not coincidentally reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s SA slogan, “Alles für Deutschland” (Everything for Germany).
Historians have defined this slogan as Nazi, and the leader of the Thuringian AfD, Björn Höcke, was accused last year of using it and fined €13,000.
Weidel, who has so far been considered more moderate in relation to the radical proclamations of some of her fellow party members, also surprised by not hesitating to speak openly about “remigration” for the first time in her speech in Riese. She had long avoided this term.
Now, however, she emphasized that Germany’s borders must be completely closed and that a clear message must be sent to the world. According to her, social benefits for non-residents should also be completely stopped, asylum seekers should receive benefits in kind instead of cash, and repatriations should be carried out. “The AfD is needed to make Germany strong, rich, and safe again,” Weidel said.
She also coined the term “windmills of shame,” referring to the thousands of wind turbines across Germany. She claimed that they all need to be removed. She later toned down her remarks, saying that she was referring primarily to the windmills in the so-called fairytale forest of Reinhardswald in Hesse, which allegedly inspired the Brothers Grimm to write their famous fairy tales.
The wind farm is set to replace the forest in this area and should be operational by the end of 2026.
It was not only Weidel’s statements that attracted attention this week, but also those of Jörg Urban, the AfD’s regional chairman in Saxony, who was invited to appear on the political talk show Markus Lanz on the public television channel ZDF. Urban stated that he does not consider Russia to be a dictatorship. He also avoided answering a direct question about whether Vladimir Putin is a war criminal.
Young Alternative to be abolished
At its congress in Riese, the AfD also decided to abolish its existing youth organization, Junge Alternative (JA), and establish a new one. Unlike JA, the new organization will be an integral part of the AfD, and all young people over the age of 16 will now also be members of the AfD.
The party leadership reportedly wanted to bring the AfD youth organization closer to the party with this step. The reality, however, is that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has designated the existing JA as proven right-wing extremist and threatened to dissolve it.
Experts therefore see the motivation for the change in the fact that the AfD youth organization, which will no longer be an independent organization, will be better protected from a possible ban.
The Bavarian AfD and Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke were against the change and wanted to postpone the matter. However, almost 72 percent of delegates at the congress in Riese ultimately voted in favor of the change.
In recent years, Czech politician Tomio Okamura has also been a great supporter and admirer of JA, personally guiding a delegation from the Saxony branch of the organization through the Czech Chamber of Deputies. Okamura’s SPD also met with AfD youth at a joint meeting in Ústí nad Labem last June.
From liberal circles to the AfD
The German media are also surprised by the fact that the AfD has elected Alice Weidel as its leader, who lives in a registered partnership with her long-term partner Sarah Bossard, with whom she is raising two sons.
The party is known not only for its racist program, but also for its agitation against gays and lesbians. Weidel’s partner, Sarah Bossard, is a film producer originally from Sri Lanka, now working in Switzerland, where she and Weidel live together.
Before Weidel joined the AfD, both women were active in left-liberal circles in their then home town of Biel in Switzerland, Focus magazine recalled.
Weidel studied business administration and economics in Bayreuth. She then completed her doctoral studies in the field of the Chinese pension system. She also completed a research stay in China and then worked as a management consultant. Her assets are estimated at approximately €1.2 million.
Weidel joined the AfD in 2013. After two years, she was elected to the party’s federal leadership. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2017. In 2019, she became the AfD’s federal spokesperson. Weidel now leads the parliamentary group in the Bundestag together with Alexander Gauland. Since 2020, she has also been the AfD’s state chairwoman in Baden-Württemberg.
She could win around 20 percent
According to opinion polls, the AfD will win around 20 percent of the vote in the February elections. Even twelve years after the party was founded, there is still no prospect of the AfD participating in government, and the party is still far from an absolute majority, notes Martin Debes, author of the book Deutschland der Extreme (Germany of Extremes), published last year, in an analysis for Stern magazine.
However, the party leadership believes that their time will come. “She is the future chancellor,” said AfD co-chair Tino Chrupalla at the AfD convention in Riese, referring to Alice Weidel.
And if she doesn’t become chancellor this year, then in four years, AfD politicians are convinced. By the 2029 parliamentary elections, the political mood in the country and the AfD are expected to converge to such an extent that the self-proclaimed “Alternative” will have no alternative. Alice Weidel will be 50 years old and ready to govern.
This year, the party would consider anything less than the result of the last European elections, which was just under 16 percent, a defeat. According to the latest poll by Infratest dimap, the AfD would now win 20 percent of the vote, the Christian Democrats (CD/CSU) 31 percent, and the Social Democrats (SPD) 15 percent.
Looking back at the 2021 federal elections, it is clear that most of the polls at the time were very accurate. The results from Allensbach differed from the final result by 4.65 percent, and those from Infatest dimap by 6.65 percent. In the case of the Kantar (Emnid) polls, however, the difference was more than 20 percent.
The AfD won 25.7 percent of the vote in last year’s local elections in Brandenburg, making it the strongest party. The same was true in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where it won 25.4 percent. In the European elections in June 2024, the AfD became the second strongest party with 15.9 percent, behind the CDU, which had 30 percent.
The AfD is classified by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as suspected of right-wing extremism. In March 2022, the Administrative Court in Cologne ruled in favor of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the AfD’s lawsuit against this classification. The party has appealed.
The AfD’s state associations are assessed differently by the relevant state authorities. For example, the Thuringian AfD is monitored as a right-wing extremist organization.
