AfD is Germany’s new ‘people’s party’ – co-leader

Alice Weidel has said her party has replaced Chancellor Merz’s CDU in this role after its historic defeat in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) has replaced Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) as the ‘people’s party’ in Germany, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel has said. Her comment came after the CDU suffered a crushing defeat in Sunday’s regional election in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, failing to even clear the 5% threshold.Speaking on Monday, Weidel attributed the CDU’s historic drubbing to its supposed tendency to implement left-wing policies while professing to be a conservative party. Commenting on the Christian Democrats’ poor showing in Berlin, where the Left Party came out on top with a projected 25.7% of the vote, the AfD co-leader said that this was the direct result of the CDU’s “particularly ‘intelligent’ firewall policy.” The term refers to the party’s refusal to cooperate with the AfD under any circumstances, a policy that has led to the formation of unwieldy coalitions between the Christian Democrats and left-leaning parties.“The CDU will never again win a federal election,” Weidel predicted. The other Af...