MICHAEL WALSH: Winston Churchill described China as ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma​.’ The same might be said of Germany’s Alternative for German (AfD) Party.

Established in 2013 the AfD today has not one but two leaders. Partnered with Alice Elizabeth Weidel, Tino Chrupalla is politically a mirror image of fellow incumbent Alice Weidel.  

So why does the party have two leaders? That is a good question. Could it be that the fair-haired 45-year-old is more user-friendly, easier on the eye, or enjoys more voter empathy than her fellow incumbent?

‘If it looks like a man, walks and talks like a man it is a man’ sums up Alice Weidel. A man for all seasons, the Mandarin-speaking lesbian enjoys a civil partnership in Switzerland with a Sri Lankan woman who shares the care for two adopted children. (SEE LEFT PICTURE)

Germany has a solid history of being laissez-faire toward non-conformist lifestyles. For this reason, Alice Weidel’s unusual lifestyle is likely more tolerated in today’s ‘Weimar’ Berlin than it would be in, say, Paris or London.

When €132,000 was illegally donated by a Swiss-based property oligarch to support the AfD’s 2017 Federal Election Campaign the party was fined. Weidel and three other officials went unpunished.

Make of that what you will, but the anti-sanctions EU-sceptical AfD today appears to be unstoppable. This​ is especially so now that Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has forthrightly campaigned in support of the AfD.

Musk’s intervention in Germany and Britain’s political status quo could signal the beginning of the end of traditional regime change by installed revolution. Why risk lives and the American reputation when you can play regime change by influencing elections?

Be careful what you wish for. A swing towards conservatism in Europe could more likely result from a lifting of sanctions more pragmatic partnership with neighbouring Russia.

Is Putin’s patience paying off? It is no surprise that Vladimir Putin, Russia’s head of State smiles smugly as he watches the clock ticking towards Russia’s weltanschauung.

As snap elections are to be held in Germany as early as February 23, the timing of Elon Musk’s support for the right-wing anti-migrant AfD is critical.

If Alice Weidel emerges as Germany’s latest chancellor – which she could – the ricochet across politicised Europe could signal the ignominious end of the West’s liberal-globalist status quo.

Events in neighbouring France suggest the impending fall of President Macron. Fire-walled liberal-left coalitions scattered across much of the 27-nation EU bloc are standing at an abyss. 2025 could herald a far different Europe from the Europe we are used to.

As the dust settles, media pundits will assuredly point their fingers at US President Donald Trump’s election.

So, the harbinger of doom or renaissance lies with the Alternative for Germany phenomena. Can Berlin’s firewall coalition stop the advance of the second most popular alternatives? If it hasn’t worked so far, why should it now when the Bundestag coalition is in disarray and the AfD is picking up the pieces?

It must be said that the AfD too is split between the moderate and more right-wing factions. Mess with the best die like the rest; to deal with such challenges Weidel is becoming more hard-line but in whose favour?

She started out supporting economist Bernd Lücke but turned on him at a party conference in 2015 to ensure her place on the national committee. She initially criticized the outspoken Höcke, but gave that up as with his popularity and insinuations of right-wing empathy he cemented his influence in the party.

Successive AfD leaders Lücke, Frauke Petry and Jorg Meuthen all quit the party as they lost control of the (right-wing) radicals. Alice Weidel, however, stayed.

On the second Thursday of January, Ms Weidel joined Elon Musk for a live-streamed discussion on his platform X to boost her party’s popularity.

The former Goldman Sachs analyst defies typical stereotypes of the far right in Germany. Weidel has a PhD in economics. She tells The American Conservative that “neither I nor my party are Right-wing extremists.” She has said elsewhere that they are “liberal-conservatives.”

However, her colleagues at the party may indicate otherwise. Influential state leader Bjorn Hocke was twice convicted of using the Sturmabteilung phrase “everything for Germany” at rallies.

A lead candidate in the 2024 European Parliament elections was booted from the parliamentary group after saying “Not everyone in an SS uniform was a criminal”.

Alice Weidel’s grandfather, Hans Weidel, was a high-ranking judge in Hitler’s Reich and indeed he was personally appointed by Adolf Hitler.

The AfD has come a long way from the Eurosceptic “professors’ party”. Weidel managed to rise through the party ranks as it shifted its focus towards criticizing Germany’s migration and asylum policies.

Unlike Europe’s liberal-left coalitions the AfD under Weidel, or anyone else is unlikely to renege on its election promises. These will inescapably reverse non-European immigration, remove anti-Russian sanctions and appease Moscow.

The maverick Weidel lauded Britain’s departure from the European Union which places her at odds with right-wing conservatives who claim change rather than departure is what the EU needs.

Her stance is that near-bankrupt fuel-starved Germany’s best option is to play off Moscow and Washington. 

On February 23 we discover how the mop flopped. Whatever the outcome, expect a more sovereign pragmatic Europe that has figured out that Moscow holds more aces than Trump’s America. YOU CAN SHARE THIS STORY ON SOCIAL MEDIA