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AfD’s historic Germany poll win puts Alice Weidel in spotlight: Who is the pro-remigration leader?
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz clashed with AfD leader Alice Weidel in a heated Bundestag debate this week, calling her party a "destructive force" days after its landslide win in Saxony-Anhalt.
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz clashed with AfD leader Alice Weidel in a heated Bundestag debate this week, calling her party a "destructive force" days after its landslide win in Saxony-Anhalt.
7 min readSep 12, 2026 06:55 AM IST First published on: Sep 11, 2026 at 04:38 PM IST
Alice Weidel has led the AfD since becoming a defining figure in its rise. (AI-generated image)
Alice Weidel, the co-leader of Germany’s far-right AfD, has emerged as one of the most recognisable faces of the country’s political shift to the right. Her latest clash with Chancellor Friedrich Merz in parliament came days after the AfD scored a historic 43.8 per cent in Saxony-Anhalt, its strongest showing in a German state election.
Yet 47-year-old Weidel’s personal life sits uneasily alongside parts of the party’s platform. She is openly gay and lives with her Sri Lankan-born partner, Sarah Bossard, with whom she has two children. The AfD, meanwhile, has promoted a traditional family model and opposed the expansion of LGBT-related policies. Weidel has said she sees no contradiction between her own family and the political position she represents.
The AfD’s 43.8 per cent in Saxony-Anhalt was a historic result, giving the party 39 seats in the 83-member state parliament, just three short of a majority. The result has opened the possibility of Germany’s first far-right state government since the Second World War, although the AfD would need support from another party.
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Germany · Profile
Who is Alice Weidel?
In the Bundestag, Sept 9, 2026. Photo: Reuters
The economist-turned-politician now leading Germany's far-right surge — and the personal life that sits awkwardly alongside her party's platform.
Germany
Born Gütersloh, 1979 · age 47
Switzerland
Where her family lives
43.8%
AfD vote, Saxony-Anhalt
39/83
Seats won
3
Seats short of a majority
Two sides Before politics The rise What she stands for Why now
The contrast
Her life and her party's platform
Her life
Her party
Openly gay; with partner Sarah Bossard since 2009
Opposes expanding LGBTQ+ rights
Bossard was born in Sri Lanka, adopted by a Swiss family
Hardline anti-immigration platform
Raising two children with her partner
Platform defines family as father, mother, children
Family home in Switzerland; official residence in Germany
Campaigns on national sovereignty
Her answer to the contradiction
Weidel rejects the framing. She says her sexuality does not conflict with the party's values, and has said she is in the AfD because of her homosexuality, not despite it — arguing that immigration poses the greater threat to gay people's safety in Germany. She has also said legalising same-sex marriage was unimportant to her.
1998–2013
Economist, banker, China specialist
University of Bayreuth
Studied economics and business administration, graduating in 2004 near the top of her year.
Goldman Sachs, Frankfurt
Worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs Asset Management in 2005–06, later moving into other finance roles.
Six years in China
Worked at the Bank of China and learned Mandarin, living in the country for six years.
Doctorate, 2011
Completed a PhD on the future of China's pension system, awarded magna cum laude.
2013–2026
From new member to national leader
2013
Joins the AfD in October, saying she was drawn by its opposition to the euro.
2015
Elected to the party's federal executive committee.
2017
Enters the Bundestag as AfD co-lead candidate, and takes over as leader of its parliamentary group in October.
2022
Elected federal co-chair of the AfD alongside Tino Chrupalla.
2025
Runs as the AfD's first chancellor candidate; the party takes 20.8% and second place, making her Leader of the Opposition.
2026
The AfD's Saxony-Anhalt breakthrough — its strongest state result yet.
The platform
What she campaigns on
Immigration
Tight border controls and "remigration" — the return of migrants, a term critics say extends to naturalised citizens.
Europe and Russia
Deep scepticism of the EU, and support for restoring closer ties with Russia.
Economy and energy
Free-market positions: lower taxes, less bureaucracy, cheaper energy and a revival of nuclear power.
Under official scrutiny
Germany's domestic intelligence agency monitors the AfD on suspicion of right-wing extremism — a status the party contests.
September 6, 2026
Why this result matters
A collapse for the CDU
Chancellor Friedrich Merz's party fell from 37.1% to 17.2%, losing about half its support in a state it had governed for 24 years.
Record turnout
77.8% of voters took part — and the AfD appears to have won over many who did not vote at all five years ago.
The "firewall" question
Short of a majority, the AfD needs support from outside its own group. Whether rival parties hold to their refusal to cooperate is now the central question.
A postwar first
No far-right party has led a German state government since the Second World War.
Source: Al Jazeera, CBS News, NBC News, Britannica and official election results, September 2026. Weidel's children are minors and appear only as a count, with no further detail.
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The AfD fell three seats short of a majority and may now try to govern with support from the left-wing populist BSW party. A senior AfD figure in the state has even suggested Merz’s Christian Democrats could work with the AfD if the party drops its long-standing refusal to co-operate with the far right, a policy known in Germany as the Brandmauer, or “firewall”.
How Merz reacted
Merz hit back at Weidel by accusing the AfD of pursuing policies that would damage Germany’s economy and society. Referring to the party’s “remigration” plans, he said they amounted to “nothing other than a synonym for ethnic cleansing” and told Weidel: “You are and will remain a destructive force.”
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Merz said his government accepted that some deportations were necessary, but drew a distinction between people who contribute to the economy and those without permanent residency. He also rejected any suggestion the AfD could soon take power nationally, telling Weidel directly, “You are and will remain a destructive force.” He accused the party of misleading voters by claiming before the election that its candidate for state premier, Ulrich Siegmund, would take office only with a majority, then starting to seek a coalition hours after the result came in.
Who is Alice Weidel?
Weidel has led the AfD since becoming a defining figure in its rise, despite standing at odds with much of the party’s own platform
She has described her own upbringing as deeply political, though her parents did not belong to any party. Her grandfather served as a judge under the Nazi regime, and her family was expelled from Silesia, now part of Poland, after the Second World War, according to the German newspaper Die Welt. That family history, she has said, shaped her early interest in politics and the state.
Weidel studied business and economics before joining Goldman Sachs. She later moved to China, where she learned Mandarin and completed a doctorate on the country’s pension system while working as a business consultant, building a career far removed from the party she would go on to lead.
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She joined the AfD in 2013 during the eurozone bailout crisis, which the party strongly opposed, and has modelled her economic views on those of former British leader Margaret Thatcher, backing a Brexit-style vote on EU membership.
Under her leadership, the AfD has shifted from an economically focused party into one built around a harder line on immigration and social policy. In 2016, the party adopted its first formal manifesto, which defined family strictly as a mother, father and children, called for an end to sexual diversity education in schools, and formally opposed full marriage equality.
What did Weidel say?
Weidel, opening the session as leader of the main opposition party, told Merz his party had been “pulverised” in Saxony-Anhalt after winning just 17.2 per cent of the vote there, and accused his coalition with the centre-left of pushing Germany towards bankruptcy. She said voters had shown his government was a failure and that his time in office was up. She also argued that mass migration had brought daily knife violence and attacks on trains and in stations across the country.
At one point, disruption from AfD MPs grew so loud that Bundestag President Julia Klöckner warned them to settle down, telling the chamber, “We are not on a football pitch.”
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Weidel’s position contradicts her party’s policy
Her own position within that party has become one of the more striking contradictions in German politics. When asked how she reconciles her identity as a gay woman with leading a party often criticised as anti-LGBTQ+, Weidel has said her role as an openly gay co-leader is itself a political statement. She has argued that stronger immigration controls would do more to protect gay people from violence, which she has blamed specifically on what she called “Muslim gangs” rather than on domestic attitudes toward LGBTQ+ people in Germany.
Weidel’s influence also extends beyond Germany. She has cultivated ties with Trump’s MAGA movement, while US Vice-President JD Vance has previously criticised Germany’s “firewall” against parties such as the AfD. Trump himself celebrated the AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt victory and blamed Germany’s immigration policies for the result.
Meanwhile, a planned call between Trump and Merz, meant to mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the United States, was postponed this week. A government spokesperson in Berlin did not give a reason, and no new date has been set.
(With input from agencies)
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