Alice Elisabeth Weidel (born 6 February 1979) is a German politician who has been serving as co-chairwoman of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party alongside Tino Chrupalla since June 2022. Since October 2017, she has held the position of leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Weidel became a member of the Bundestag (MdB) in the 2017 federal election, where she was the AfD’s lead candidate alongside Alexander Gauland. In the 2021 federal election, she once again served as their lead candidate, alongside Tino Chrupalla. From February 2020 to July 2022, Weidel held the position of chairwoman of the AfD state association in Baden-Württemberg.

Early life and career of Alice Weidel

Weidel was born in Gütersloh and grew up in Versmold, where she graduated from a Christliches Jugenddorfwerk Deutschlands (CJD) Gymnasium in 1998. She studied economics and business administration at the University of Bayreuth and graduated as one of the best in the year in 2004. After receiving her undergraduate university degree, Weidel went to work for Goldman Sachs from July 2005 to June 2006 as an analyst in asset management in Frankfurt. In the late 2000s, she worked at the Bank of China, lived six years in China and speaks Mandarin. Subsequently, she wrote a doctoral thesis with the health economist Peter Oberender at the Faculty of Law and Economics in Bayreuth on the future of the Chinese pension system. In 2011, she received a PhD in international development. Her doctorate was supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

From March 2011 to May 2013, she worked at Allianz Global Investors in Frankfurt. Since 2014, she has worked as a freelance business consultant. In 2015, she worked for Rocket Internet and Foodora. Weidel is a member of the Friedrich A. von Hayek Society [de].

Alternative for Germany

Weidel joined the Alternative for Germany in October 2013. According to Alice Weidel, she was first attracted to the party due to her opposition to the Euro. She was elected to the federal executive committee of the AfD in June 2015. In April 2017 she was elected co-Lead Candidate of the party. She is the first lesbian to serve as a lead candidate of her party. She has been identified by the media as belonging to the more moderate conservative Alternative Mitte faction within the AfD.

AfD donation scandal

Main article: Alternative for Germany donation scandal
The Switzerland-based property billionaire Henning Conle supported AfD. He donated a total of 132,000 euros by means of straw men for the 2017 federal election campaign of Alice Weidel. Conle disguised his donation from Switzerland in 18 tranches.

The AfD had to pay the Bundestag a high fine for this donation, but Weidel and three other officials went unpunished.

Political positions

Alice Weidel in 2017

At the end of 2017, Weidel accused the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church in Germany of “playing the same inglorious role that they played in the Third Reich”, accusing both churches of being “thoroughly politicized” and stating that AfD is “the only Christian party that still exists” in Germany. Such statements were dismissed by the Catholic German Bishops’ Conference and the Evangelical Church as “polemics” and “derailment”.

Immigration

Weidel has criticized the immigration policies of Angela 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.” She has called for the German government to invest in “special economic zones” in the Middle East to encourage educated and skilled persons to remain in their home countries and avoid the possibility of brain drain, but also says she supports a “Canadian-style system” which would privilege skilled, over unskilled, immigrants.

European Union

Weidel supports continued German membership in the European Union; however, she has called for economically weak states, such as Greece, to leave. Despite her stance on German membership of the EU, she believes that Germany should withdraw from the Eurozone.

Source: wikipedia.org