European Legislative Body
In the political landscape of Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, with Alice Weidel as its chancellor candidate, has been making waves. Weidel, a prominent figure in the far-right party, has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2017 and currently serves as co-chair of the AfD's Bundestag faction.
Weidel's role in the AfD's election campaign is significant. She was the party's first formal candidate for Chancellor, nominated by the party's federal executive in December 2024 and confirmed at the federal party congress. Additionally, she was the AfD's top candidate on the Baden-Württemberg state list.
During the campaign, Weidel emphasized core AfD issues such as migration control and social policy. In a notable July 2025 TV interview, she called for an “ideology-free debate on uncontrolled immigration” and blamed migration for straining social and healthcare systems. She also sharply criticized mainstream media and political opponents during this period.
The AfD's online presence, particularly on social media, was noted to be more engaging compared to some traditional parties. However, a nearly 62-year-old white social democratic manager with a communications background, living in Kiel and Berlin Mitte, found no AfD posters on the streets of either city. The visual language on the AfD's Instagram was conventional to silly, and they were proudly "anti-woke" and provocative.
The AfD's election campaign videos were perceived as boring, crude, dull, and a bit malicious by the author. Weidel's live performance at an economic event was also found unimpressive. The author did not observe any new developments in the AfD's election posters or any revolutionary social media presence from the party.
The author compared the AfD's election campaign to the giant Tur Tur from Michael Ende, suggesting that fear of the AfD's size may not be enough to drive voters away from the democratic center. The author expressed a concern that Brecht's quote "The womb is still fertile, from which it crawled" may be accurate, implying that a significant portion of the population in Germany (at least a quarter) is nasty, narrow-minded, racist, and xenophobic.
The AfD's website has a blue homepage with the slogan "Time for Germany," which the author found unremarkable. The party is historically the original, while the Democrats were the alternative, but the author suggests that the Democrats are currently on their way to disappearing from the international stage due to their self-focused narratives and failure to stand in the way of the AfD.
Weidel's rhetoric during the election campaign, particularly on the issue of migration, was sharply critical of mainstream politics and media, forging a divisive narrative that resonated with some sections of the population. The AfD's policy-and-legislation agenda, as presented in their campaign, focused primarily on migration control and social policy.
