Young, Successful and Lesbian - The Face of Far-right Germany
September 28, 2017She is young, gay and raises two sons with her partner from Sri Lankan origin. People close to her describe her as focused and talented, with two degrees in both economics and business management, Weidel lived in China for her studies and is fluent in Mandarin before starting to work for Goldman Sachs and Allianz International. All in all Alice Weidel sounds like an open-minded, liberal and metropolitan woman. But there is also the other Alice. A woman who is the face of the xenophobic and homophobic German political party AfD (Alternative for Germany), the first far-right party to move into German government since the defeat of the Nazis.
In the recent German federal elections, the AfD came out on rank 3, with almost 13% of the total votes. The AfD was founded as a centre-right conservative party of the middle class with a tendency toward 'soft' Euroscepticism, being generally supportive of Germany's membership in the European Union but critical of further European integration, the existence of the euro currency, and the bailouts by the eurozone for countries such as Greece. The party has a platform of climate change denial and criticizes the energy transformation policies that have promoted renewable energy. According to its manifesto, the party is against same-sex marriage and against adoption for same-sex couples and campaigned for traditional roles. How did they reach such popularity? No different than the Republican party did in last years US election, by using Social Media tactics to spread hate speech and negativity.
At first glance, Weidel's involvement with AfD is hard to explain. Weidel's entire career and lifestyle is in direct contradiction to her right-wing populist party. How can an economist who has a residence in Switzerland, who has lived in China for years and has worked for globally networked companies beat the drum for a party that wants to preserve Germany's national "identity" and seal its borders? Weidel, married to a film producer and the mother of two children, claims her party is not homophobic, but AFD ran an "obituary" for German family values when the nation passed marriage equality in June. Despite her own sexual identity, Weidel has never rejected her party's homophobia. She knows that would only serve to make her unpopular.
Weidel’s private- and political life couldn’t be any more different. Questions about how her sexual orientation goes hand in hand with her parties views are being ignored. In fact, she doesn’t want to talk about her private life at all. Afterall her expertise lie in economics. But exactly those are the questions that are the most interesting? Who is Alice Weidel? How does she fit in a far-right party and where does she draw the line between politics and her private life? How can you represent families as a party while ignoring the topic completely?
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