It has been revealed that the family of German AfD leader Alice Weidel was whisked away from their home to a secure location by police during the weekend of September 23rd after a “security-relevant incident” forced authorities to move to protect their safety.
The threat comes after years of growing state and left-wing harassment against the German populist party, which has recorded its highest-ever polling numbers in recent months on account of worsening economic conditions and rising anti-NATO sentiment.
According to AfD officials, Weidel was forced to flee her apartment due to what appears to have been advanced intelligence about an imminent attack against the politician and her family as the AfD prepares to contest regional Bavarian elections on October 8th.
The security incident also forced the AfD leader, who primarily resides in Berlin, to cancel her plans to speak in person at a party event to mark German Unity Day in the town of Mödlareuth along the Bavaria-Thuringia border.
Without mentioning the security concerns directly, Weidel implored AfD members by video message to deal Bavaria’s conservative regional governor Markus Söder an electoral blow at the next election.
In Bavaria, one of the German regions where the AfD is weakest due to the presence of the regionalist Free Voters (FW) and Christian Social Union parties, the AfD is still expected to win just under one-fifth of the votes in a sign that the party is building national momentum.
A spokesman for the Federal Criminal Police Office refused to provide any further details about the exact nature of the threat.
A 44-year-old former financial analyst turned politician, Weidel has co-led the AfD with Tino Chrupalla since 2022 and is in a same-sex partnership with a Sri Lankan woman with two adopted children.
The AfD regularly undergoes physical harassment from left-wing militants. In August, one of the party’s activists lost several fingers in a machete attack in the city of Chemnitz.
In March, the party grabbed international headlines when Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, approved putting the populist party under surveillance in what the AfD labeled an affront to democracy and a clear act of political intimidation.
