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The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Saturday nominated party leader Alice Weidel as its top candidate for the upcoming elections, marking the first time the anti-immigration, eurosceptic party has put forward a pick for chancellor.
The executive board and regional party leaders agreed to field Weidel as the party’s top candidate during a meeting in Berlin, participants said.
“Today is a big day for the party and a big day for Germany,” Weidel said afterwards during a joint press conference with her co-chairman Tino Chrupalla.
Chrupalla added that the party is “a team with a striker,” saying he would support it so that its striker “scores as many goals as possible and becomes the top scorer.”
Weidel is to be confirmed as the AfD’s nomination at a party conference in January.
Around 200 people demonstrated against the AfD outside the meeting’s location in northern Berlin, according to police. They demanded a ban on the party and chanted, “All together against fascism.”
Scholz’s squabbling three-party coalition collapsed in early November after the chancellor fired former finance minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) following months of disputes over economic policy and the 2025 budget.
The chancellor has announced plans to hold a vote of confidence later this month, which is widely expected to lead to early elections on February 23.
Weidel’s chancellery prospects
Weidel’s candidacy is largely symbolic given that there is no prospect of a majority in parliament in favour of an AfD chancellor, with other parties refusing to cooperate with the far-right party.
However, Weidel has explained the AfD’s decision to nominate a candidate for chancellor by asserting that her party has a claim to govern, citing its opinion poll ratings.
The AfD, which was founded in 2013 and first entered parliament in 2017, is currently polling between 18 and 19% nationwide, placing it in second position behind the conservative Christian Democrats/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) bloc with 32 to 33%.
The ruling Social Democratic Party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is currently polling at around 18%.
Ahead of her nomination, Weidel had already responded cautiously to questions about her ambitions to enter the chancellery: “I tend to be realistic. I take one step at a time. Now the party is nominating a chancellor candidate for the first time … And I’m handling that with great humility and trying to make the best of the election campaign,” she said.
