A far-right party, AfD, is now the third largest party in the German parliament after winning 12.6 per cent vote in Sunday’s election. One of the most prominent faces of the party is Alice Weidel—a lesbian and former Goldman Sachs banker who speaks fluent Mandarin
Goldman Sachs economist
Weidel was born and educated in West Germany, and after college, lived in China for a year, working at the Bank of China, and learned Chinese. Following a stint at Goldman Sachs in Frankfurt, she completed her doctorate in economics, according to Foreign Policy. Then in 2013, she joined Alternative for Germany (AfD)
Anti-immigrant, Sinhalese partner
She and her partner—a Swiss filmmaker of Sinhalese heritage—live with their two adopted sons. Only recently, Germany legalised same-sex marriages. When the Bundestag voted for it, she said, “The grand coalition is pushing through ‘marriage for everybody’ legislation, while the mass migration [sic] that has swamped the country over the last two years considers homosexuality a crime”
Asylum for ‘foreign criminals’
Although her partner is of Sri Lankan-origin, Weidel has taken an anti-immigrant stance. She says, Germany has “become a safe port for foreign criminals”. She wants to abolish the country’s current asylum law. Weidel was even alleged to have hired a Syrian refugee as a domestic help
Wiedel is generally seen as the moderate voice in her hard-right party. But that image was dented after an email she allegedly wrote in 2013 was leaked. “The reason why we are overrun by culturally foreign people such as Arabs, Sinti and Roma is the systematic destruction of civil society as a possible counterweight from the enemies of the constitution by whom we are governed,” the Welt am Sonntag newspaper quoted the email as saying