Published December 22, 2024 at 5:41 p.m.
Foreign. Alice Weidel, party leader of the immigration-critical Alternative for Germany (AfD), has overtaken Christian Democrat Friedrich Merz as the most popular candidate for the post of new German Chancellor ahead of the upcoming election in February, according to a survey commissioned by German newspaper Bild.
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© M. Kraft
Karl Lauterbach.
A new election will be held in Germany on February 23, 2025, after Olaf Scholz's government was voted out earlier in December.
Alice Weidel took a huge leap in public opinion after American entrepreneur Elon Musk stated that “only the AfD” – which is running for election on an extensive non-voluntary repatriation program – “can save Germany”.
According to The Guardian, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach was completely enraged by the statement and called Musk's “election influence” “unworthy” and something that must be “carefully monitored” by German authorities.
However, Social Democrat Lauterbach was unable to specify any concrete plan for how Germany could restrict American entrepreneurs' freedom of expression.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in turn, is attacking mainstream conservative rival Friedrich Merz, according to the British Financial Times.
The election campaign in Germany began with a flurry of personal insults.
The day before the parties presented their election manifestos, Chancellor Scholz caused controversy when he called rival Friedrich Merz “Fritz” – a derogatory version of his name in a German context – in a television interview on Monday.
Europe's largest economy, which until 2015 was not exactly multicultural, is now plagued by severe internal contradictions after the high level of Arab immigration during the asylum chaos and the years that followed.
The German left-wing establishment has tried to respond to popular discontent by banning the AfD. Germany's domestic intelligence service – the feared constitutional safeguard – has classified regional branches of the party as “far-right” and placed them under wiretapping and surveillance without suspicion of a crime. However, to the great chagrin of the establishment, the action has not provided material for banning the AfD at the national level.