Alice Weidel | |
|---|---|
 Weidel at CPAC Hungary 2025 | |
| Leader of the Opposition | |
| Assumed office 6 May 2025 Serving with Tino Chrupalla | |
| Chancellor | Friedrich Merz |
| Preceded by | Friedrich Merz |
| In office 24 October 2017 – 26 October 2021 Serving with Alexander Gauland | |
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
| Preceded by | |
| Succeeded by | Ralph Brinkhaus |
| Leader of theAlternative for Germany | |
| Assumed office 18 June 2022 Serving with Tino Chrupalla | |
| Deputy | |
| Preceded by | Jörg Meuthen |
| Leader of theAlternative for Germany in theBundestag | |
| Assumed office 26 September 2017 Serving with Tino Chrupalla | |
| Deputy | |
| Chief Whip | Bernd Baumann |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Member of the Bundestag forBaden-Württemberg | |
| Assumed office 24 October 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Multi-member district |
| Constituency | None |
| Leader of theAlternative for Germany inBaden-Württemberg | |
| In office 15 February 2020 – 17 July 2022 | |
| Deputy | |
| Preceded by |
|
| Succeeded by |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | Alice Elisabeth Weidel (1979-02-06)6 February 1979 (age 46) Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany |
| Political party | AfD (since 2013) |
| Domestic partner | Sarah Bossard (since 2009) |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Hans Weidel (grandfather) |
| Residences |
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| Alma mater | University of Bayreuth |
| Website | alice-weidel |
Alice Elisabeth Weidel (German:[aˈliːseˈliːzabɛtˈvaɪdl̩]; born 6 February 1979) is aGerman far-right[1][2][3] politician who has been serving asco-chairwoman of the right-wing populistAlternative for Germany (AfD) party alongsideTino Chrupalla since June 2022.[4] Since October 2017, she has held the position of leader of the AfD parliamentary group in theBundestag.
Weidel became a member of the Bundestag (MdB) in the2017 federal election, where she was the AfD's lead candidate alongsideAlexander Gauland.[5] In the2021 federal election, she once again served as their lead candidate, alongside Tino Chrupalla.[6] From February 2020 to July 2022, Weidel held the position of chairwoman of the AfD state association inBaden-Württemberg.[7] In 2024, she was selected as herparty's candidate forChancellor in the2025 German federal election.
Alice Elisabeth Weidel was born on 6 February 1979, inGütersloh. She grew up inHarsewinkel, where she graduated from aChristliches Jugenddorfwerk Deutschlands (CJD)Gymnasium in 1998.[8][9] She studied economics and business administration at theUniversity of Bayreuth and graduated as one of the best in the year in 2004.[10] After receiving her undergraduate degree, Weidel went to work forGoldman SachsAsset Management from July 2005 to June 2006 as an analyst inFrankfurt.[11][12] In the late 2000s, she worked at theBank of China, and lived for six years inChina.[8][13] Subsequently, she wrote a doctoral thesis with the health economistPeter Oberender [de] at the Faculty of Law and Economics in Bayreuth on the future of theChinese pension system.[14] In 2011, she received adoctorate ininternational development.[8][11][15][16] She received her doctoratemagna cum laude.[17] Her doctorate was supported by theKonrad Adenauer Foundation, the political partyfoundation associated with but independent of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU).[18]
From March 2011 to May 2013, Weidel worked as Vice President atAllianz Global Investors in Frankfurt.[12][11] Since 2014, she has worked as a freelance business consultant.[8] In 2015, she worked forRocket Internet andFoodora.[19] As of 2016[update], Weidel was a member of theFriedrich A. von Hayek Society.[20][21][22]
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Weidel joined the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in October 2013.[23] According to Weidel, she was first attracted to the party due to her opposition to theeuro.[24] She was elected to the federal executive committee of the AfD in June 2015.[25] In April 2017, she was elected co-lead candidate of the party.[15] She is the firstlesbian to serve as a lead candidate of her party.[26] She has been identified by the media as belonging to the more moderate conservativeAlternative Mitte faction within the AfD.[27][28]
The Switzerland-based property billionaireHenning Conle supported AfD. He donated a total of 132,000 euros by means ofstraw men for the2017 federal election campaign of Alice Weidel. Conle disguised his donation from Switzerland in 18 tranches.[29][30] The AfD had topay the Bundestag a high fine for this donation, but Weidel and three other officials went unpunished.[30] A German-wide record-setting donation of 2.35 million Euros to AfD by local Austrian FPÖ politician Gerhard Dingler in early 2025 has been identified as being linked to Conle.[31] If substantiated, such a donation would break both German and Austrian laws and would be heavily penalized.[31]
In January 2024, Weidel fired advisorRoland Hartwig after he attended a controversial meeting with German far-right activists in which plans to deport millions of people living in Germany were discussed.[32]
Weidel vigorously defendseconomic liberalism and declares former UK Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher to be her role model.[33]
In terms of economic policy, Weidel argued against the abolition of cash. During theeuro area crisis, she called for economically weak states, such as Greece,[24] Spain, and Portugal to leave or be expelled from theEurozone.[34]
Weidel expresses support for tax cuts and the abolition ofinheritance tax and opposes theminimum wage.[35][34][36]
Weidel supports continued German membership in theEuropean Union;[24] however, in an interview with theLondon Financial Times published in January 2023, Weidel outlined her party's approach in the event of a government takeover: if an attempt by the AfD to resolve the EU's "democratic deficit" were unsuccessful, Germany's exit from the EU would be put to a vote following the example of Great Britain.[37][38] Leading economists consider this to be the economic worst-case scenario.[39] In 2015, she also spoke out in favor of Germany leaving the euro/Eurozone and called for a return to agold-backed currency.[40][24] In early 2025 she indicated that she no longer believes in a return to theDeutsche Mark, saying it would be "far too late to leave the euro“. Thereby she relativized her party's demands for a return to national currency, which the AfD laid out in its programme for the 2025 federal election. However, she forecasted that the Euro would be abolished in an unorganized manner and that this would cost huge amounts of wealth.[41][42]
During the AfD party conference in June 2024, she said that it was in the interests of Germany and Europe that "Ukraine does not belong to theEuropean Union".[43]
Since 2025, the AfD has been working withHungary's nationalist and right-wing populistPrime MinisterViktor Orbán. Weidel praised Hungary as a model for the AfD, saying that the AfD shares Hungary's opposition to illegal immigration and stance on the European Union.[44] In February 2025, Weidel stated about the AfD's policy towards the European Union: "We should work together to reform the European Union at all costs. And that can only be done from within. We can achieve this by reducing thecompetences of the European Union, by dismantling the entire bureaucratic, expensive — and, in my view, corrupt — superstructure."[45][46]
In December 2016, Weidel said that German chancellorAngela Merkel was "of course" partly responsible for therape and murder of Maria Ladenburger.[47]
In 2017, Weidel criticized the immigration policies of Merkel, stating that "the country will be destroyed through this immigration policy.Donald Trump said that Merkel is insane and I absolutely agree with that. It is a completely nonsensical form of politics that is being followed here."[24] Weidel saw Merkel's asylum policy as a violation of "international agreements".[34] Weidel called for a "Fortress Europe" and "effective development aid".[48] Weidel opposes health insurance for asylum seekers, criticises what she sees as a "naive approach" to radical Islamic preachers in Germany and has warned against excessive expectations regarding the integration of refugees into the labour market.[34] In the context of the German refugee debate, she speaks of an incalculable burden on the economy and the welfare state, and that voters of established parties (CDU/CSU andSPD) have, in her opinion, "lost their minds".[49] According to her, "no important question of our time [...] can be separated from the migration question".[50] Weidel wants to ban theburqa andniqāb and has also spoken out in favour of aheadscarf ban: the headscarf should be "banned from public spaces and the streets" because it is an "absolutely sexist symbol" and represents an "apartheid between men and women".[51][52]
She has called for the German government to invest in "special economic zones" in theMiddle East to encourage educated and skilled persons to remain in their home countries and avoid the possibility ofbrain drain,[24] but also says she supports a "Canadian-style system" which would prioritize skilled, over unskilled, immigrants.[53]
In October 2022, she said that the AfD slogan "Our country first" (based on the "French first" of theFront National underJean-Marie Le Pen) called for "not a values-based foreign policy", but "an interest-driven foreign policy for our country".[54]
According to Weidel, Germany had damaged itself and was being "crushed between the major powers" with itssanctions policy against Russia. The "big loser", according to Weidel, would not be Russia or Ukraine, but Germany, because "an economic war is being waged against Germany". Although theRussian attack on Ukraine was "contrary to international law", she sees no need to "interfere", because what it ultimately meant for Ukraine and for Russia, for the division of territory, was "not our issue at all". Putting PresidentVladimir Putin before a war crimes tribunal is "completely unrealistic", according to Weidel. The hostilities must stop and Ukraine must also be "held accountable" because it cannot be "that the West accepts the Ukrainian maximum demands without thinking about it".[54]
Although advocating for economic relations with Russia, Weidel is not considered to be part of theAfD pro-Russia movement; Weidel responded to the question why she – unlike her co-chairTino Chrupalla – did not attend theRussian embassy's reception to celebratethe anniversary of the victory overNazi Germany: "Celebrating the defeat of one's own country with a former occupying power is something I have personally decided – also with myfather's escape story – not to take part in."[55][56] Weidel has also criticised Russian violations of NATO airspace and suggested that Putin had not made adequate concessions innegotiations with the United States, warning that this could undermine U.S. PresidentDonald Trump's faith in the negotiations.[57]
In contrast to her AfD co-leaderTino Chrupalla, Weidel expressed support forIsrael in context to theGaza war. During an interview withElon Musk she said she supported the state of Israel and its right to self-defense but expressed uncertainty on how to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestine.[58][59]
In early 2025, in an interview withThe American Conservative, she said regarding the demand of US presidentDonald Trump that Germany had to increase its military spending, while allegedly having to stay under the political influence of the US, that the US could not have it both ways. She compared Germany with a slave and said that "slaves don’t fight. A slave who fights will invariably demand freedom as a reward." Weidel said that, if Germany has to take responsibility for its own security in the future, this comes with the price of independence from the US, especially regarding energy policy,Nord Stream in particular.[60]
During theCOVID-19 pandemic in Germany, Weidel's stance changed. In March 2020, she said thatCOVID-19 could "spread unhindered" in Germany, while all EU countries were "practically shutting down public life." This would have "fatal consequences" for Germany, and the government must "finally take appropriate steps now." She spoke of a "negligent game with the lives and health of our citizens," because, according to everything we know, the virus "poses a higher risk of infection and a greater risk of mortality than the common flu." After the shutdown, however Weidel called for the economy to be restarted "immediately"; the "chaos policy of the federal government" was "disastrous." At the end of May 2020 she called the federal government's Corona policy "pre-democratic" and accused it of "a blanket restriction of basic rights and then distributing them again piecemeal as if by an act of mercy".[61][62][63] After party leaderJörg Meuthen had criticized the party for showing too much solidarity with theCOVID-19 protests in Germany, Weidel said that she could "recommend to anyone who tries to defame this movement to simply attend a demonstration. She described the Infection Protection Act as unconstitutional; therefore, they "were right to take to the streets".[64]
In July 2021, Weidel stated that she would not be vaccinated against COVID-19 for the foreseeable future and complained that healthy unvaccinated people in Germany were being discriminated against – she also did not believe in an implied vaccination requirement.[65] In mid-November 2021, she contracted COVID-19 and had to go into quarantine at home.[66] In an interview with journalistErhard Scherfer for thePhoenix on 8 December 2021, Weidel emphatically denied his statement that the majority of hospital intensive care units were unvaccinated. When asked where she obtained the figures, Weidel cited the Federal Statistical Office as her source. The Federal Office itself, however, quickly clarified that it did not have such data at all, which triggered considerable media attention.[67][68] At an AfD event inHeilbronn in March 2024, Weidel asked who actually takes responsibility “for all the vaccine-damaged people, who are in wheelchairs, who have died.”[63]
Weidel has said she supportscivil partnership for gay and lesbian couples, noting she is a lesbian herself and in a civil partnership with another woman.[15][69]
She combines this position with her negative attitude towardsasylum in Germany andIslam. Weidel said that she sees family policy as moreliberal than her party: "Family is where children are."[70]
Weidel has stated her opposition to discussion of sexuality prior to puberty saying that "I don't want anyone with their gender idiocy or their early sexualisation classes coming near my children."[24] She has also expressed her opposition to legalization ofsame-sex marriage, stating that she supports protection of the "traditional family" while also supporting "other lifestyles".[24]
At the end of 2017, Weidel accused the two biggest churches in Germany, theCatholic Church and theProtestant Church, of "playing the sameinglorious role that they played in theThird Reich", accusing both churches of being "thoroughly politicized" and stating that AfD is "the only Christian party that still exists" in Germany.[71] Such statements were dismissed by the CatholicGerman Bishops' Conference and the Evangelical Church as "polemics" and "derailment".[72]
Weidel has expresseddoubts aboutglobal warming;[73] in 2019, Weidel expressed that she did not believe "that human influence on global warming is decisive." The AfD had previously modified its position on this during the election campaign for the 2019 European elections and spoke of signs of human influence.[74] Weidel cited the Danish physicistHenrik Svensmark, who believes that the influence ofcarbon dioxide (CO2) on the climate is overestimated. Weidel's press officer named the geophysicistEigil Friis-Christensen, who worked at the NBI until 2006, as another source besides Svensmark. However, his research on this subject, which was taken up by Weidel and other climate skeptics, is unsubstantiated.[75]
With regard to theFridays for Future rallies, Weidel spoke of "this campaigning ability that is rolling towards us," and said: "The power of this cumulative stupidity is frightening."[76]
At the AfD party conference inRiesa in January 2025, Weidel said that an AfD government would "naturally bring functioning nuclear power plants back online"; she called for longer operating times for coal-fired power plants. She also promised to restart Nord Stream to supply Russian gas through theBaltic Sea. She also said that a government with her participation would "tear down all wind turbines," calling them "windmills of shame."[77][78]
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In April 2017, Weidel railed againstpolitical correctness, saying that it belonged in the "dustbin of history".[79] In response, on 27 April, TV presenterChristian Ehring of the satire programextra 3 addressed this, saying: "That's right! Let's put an end to political correctness. The Nazi slut is right. Was this incorrect enough? I hope so!"[79] Weidel sued the channel seeking to forbid re-airing of the program, and on 17 May the Hamburg District Court ruled against her, stating that a public figure must tolerate exaggerated criticism.[80] Weidel disagreed with the decision and promised to bring it to theOberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court).[81] As of September 2017[update], no further action had taken place.[79]
A September 2017 report byDie Zeit alleged that Weidel had illegally hired a Syrian refugee to do housework at her home in Switzerland. The report also alleged that the asylum seeker did not have a written work contract, nor were there invoices for her work. Weidel responded in atweet that theDie Zeit report was "fake news" and "false" and Weidel's lawyer stated that Weidel had a Syrian stay at her home as a guest but not as a worker.[82][83][84]
In June 2023, Weidel commented on the election polls results in formerEast Germany withoutBerlin, stating that AfD has great support in this region. However, she referred to the region asMitteldeutschland (Central Germany), which was seen by some in Poland as suggesting that the so-calledRecovered Territories belong to Germany, which caused controversies with the Polish politicianBeata Szydło.[85]
In May 2018, Weidel was reprimanded byWolfgang Schäuble (CDU), the thenPresident of the Bundestag, after Weidel made the following statement in a speech in theBundestag: "Burkas, girls inheadscarves, knifemen on subsidies and other good-for-nothings will not secure our prosperity, economic growth and, above all, the welfare state." These remarks were sharply criticized. Weidel subsequently stated in an interview that she had in no way intended these terms as a provocation against all women who wear a headscarf.[86]
In the same speech, Weidel also spoke of an "increase in the population through immigrant criminals with multiple identities" and a "strategy ofgenerational replacement throughunregulated immigration" and accused the government of wanting to "select and assemble the people themselves". This was interpreted as a reference to the "Great Replacement" theory.[87][88]
On 9 January 2025, in a live broadcast withElon Musk onX Spaces, both Weidel and Musk said that "Hitler was a communist".[89][90][91] Mainstream historians tend to reject the classification of Hitler and the National Socialists as "left" and "socialist",[92] and the Tagesschau said that Hitler himself declared in 1928 that theNazi Party was not socialist.[93][94] However Hitler stated he was a socialist in hissecond book, also written in 1928, stating: "I am a socialist. I see no class and no social estate before me, but that community of the folk, made up of people who are linked by blood [...]",[95] and several historians and economists such asHenry Ashby Turner,[96]Peter Temin[97]Götz Aly,[98]George Reisman,[99] andLudwig von Mises,[100] have noted the presence of socialist elements in national socialist ideology and the Nazi regime.
In February 2025, Weidel argued thatthe Holocaust is being used in Germany for political instrumentalization.[41]
Since 2009, Weidel has been in alesbian relationship with Sarah Bossard, a Sri Lankan-born film producer who was adopted as a child by a Swiss couple. Since 2019 the pair have lived with their two adopted sons inEinsiedeln, Switzerland. Weidel works in Berlin and says her official residence is in her electoral district inÜberlingen, on the German side of theGerman-Swiss border, allowing her to avoid Swiss taxation.[101][102][103][104]
In terms of religion, Weidel identifies herself as anagnostic.[105]
On her father's side, Weidel's family came fromNeustadt andLeobschütz inUpper Silesia, in what is nowPoland.[106] Her grandfatherHans Weidel was aNazi judge, appointed directly byAdolf Hitler.[107] He joined theNSDAP at the end of 1932 and theSS in January 1933. Weidel's father was born 1939 inUpper Silesia andfled with his mother and sister toVerl (inEast Westphalia) in February 1945. He founded a sales agency for office furniture in 1972 and worked as a sales representative for furniture, furnishings and antiques.[108][109]
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