 "Co-leader of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and her party's top candidate for Chancellor Alice Weidel and regional chairman in Thuringia of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Bjoern Hoecke (R) hug during the electoral evening in Berlin on February 23, 2025, after the first exit polls in the German general elections. Image- AFP")
Alice Weidel, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), celebrated the party’s strongest-ever national election performance on Sunday as exit polls projected it secured 19.5 to 20 percent of the vote.
“We have achieved a historic result,” Weidel told enthusiastic supporters at the AfD’s election night event in Berlin, declaring that the anti-immigration party is now “firmly anchored” in Germany’s political landscape and has “never been so strong on a national level.”
Speaking to ARD TV, Weidel extended an offer to form a coalition government with the conservative CDU/CSU alliance, which emerged as the leading party with at least 28.5 percent of the vote, according to exit polls.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz has ruled out any such alliance but caused uproar last month by bringing a motion to parliament that was passed with AfD votes, breaching a long-standing taboo.
Merz – a long-time party rival of ex-chancellor Angela Merkel – has vowed a crackdown on irregular immigration. He thus hopes to win back votes from the AfD and halt its rise, which has stunned many in a country still seeking to atone for its dark Nazi history.
Weidel predicted that if the CDU continued to refuse to work with her party to “implement the will of the people”, the AfD would “overtake” them in the next election, expected four years from now.
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With inputs from agencies