Alice Weidel: Far-right AfD leader steps up to official opposition

Once a Hitler-era rallying cry, when "Alles für Deutschland" ("everything for Germany") was used by Björn Höcke, a high-ranking member of Germany's far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), he was prosecuted for it.

- Kate Connolly

Then last August the slogan popped up at events attended by Alice Weidel, the party's co-leader, but in a subtly modified form - Alice für Deutschland.

The 46-year-old has been credited with being the driving force behind AfD's success in last month's election, where the party doubled its vote share to 20.8%.

For the first time since the second world war, a far-right party is the second largest force in parliament.

"The AfD is now firmly anchored as a people's party," Weidel declared on election night.

Under her watch the AfD has attracted donations from German millionaires, and in the run-up to the vote she was praised by Elon Musk, who hosted her for a tête-à-tête on X in which they appeared to downplay the Nazi era.

Her backstory and home life make her an improbable figurehead for a radical anti-immigration party that is under surveillance for suspected extremism.

A Mandarin speaker who has lived in Singapore and Hong Kong, she lives in Switzerland with her Sri Lanka-born wife and their children. On the campaign trail she was unable to answer a question about how many people live in the constituency she represents.