Glass houses/ stones
The AfD’s co-faction leader in the Bundestag, Alice Weidel, doesn’t fit the prototype of the gammon-faced elderly gent muttering about inner cities being full of foreigners these days.
She is a well-spoken and well travelled academic. And she is also openly gay.
Don’t be fooled though. Weidel knows how to push the AfD base’s buttons. One particular low point was a rant about “headscarf-wearing teenagers and other ne'er-do-wells” during a Bundestag debate on immigration.
That comment was just one in a long line of crude attacks on Muslims. It’s no coincidence that her invective has coincided with an increase in anti-Muslim hate crime.
When opponents haul her up on this, Weidel gives the ‘you can’t say anything these days’ response… more red meat to the party base.
But the former banker has discovered a new sensitivity around hurtful language in recent days, one that may come as a surprise to her followers.
The background is a decision by the city of Munich to light the …
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