The AfD scored its best ever result to finish in second place with just under 21 percent in Sunday’s vote, behind only the conservative CDU-CSU which came first on 28.6 percent [GETTY]
German far-right leader Alice Weidel on Monday said she was aiming for her Alternative for Germany (AfD) to become the strongest party in the country after a record election performance.
The AfD scored its best-ever result, finishing in second place with just under 21 percent in Sunday’s vote, behind only the conservative CDU/CSU, which came first with 28.6 percent.
Weidel, who led the AfD as its candidate to be chancellor in the election campaign, said she believed the party could “overtake the CDU within the next few years for the next election…to become the strongest force” in Germany.
The anti-immigration AfD remains a pariah for many German voters amid guilt over the country’s Nazi past and has been labelled as right-wing extremist in some chapters of the party by German security services.
However, the party enjoyed a surge of support in the run-up to the election, partly due to vocal endorsement from senior figures in the administration of US President Donald Trump.
“We are a people’s party,” Weidel said on Monday.
She also highlighted the fact that the AfD had done “very well” among young voters, hailing this as an “indicator that we are the party of the future”.
The AfD came second among voters aged 18 to 24 with a share of support similar to its overall result, according to a survey by public broadcaster ARD and pollster Infratest Dimap. Only the far-left Die Linke party did better, with 25 percent.
Weidel called for other parties to drop their so-called firewall against cooperation with the AfD.
“They cannot exclude millions of voters. That is undemocratic. The firewall must go — no functioning democracy has a firewall,” she said.
