Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) celebrated a record election result Sunday. The anti-immigration party scored 19.5-20 per cent of the vote according to exit polls. It is now the second strongest party after the conservative CDU/CSU alliance of winner Friedrich Merz on at least 28.5 percent. The AfD is abhorred by many Germans for openly railing against irregular migrants, Islam and multiculturalism. But in western areas too, to a growing number of voters the AfD’s hardest edges have been softened, in part by Alice Weidel’s personal story, which defies some of the party’s ultra-conservative \”family values\” platform. The party itself sometimes insists it is \”conservative-libertarian\”, and the ideological kin of US President Donald Trump, whose cabinet members and billionaire ally Elon Musk have voiced full-throated support for it. It also voices anti-\”woke\” views, doubts climate change and leans toward Moscow on the Ukraine war.
