Herbert Kickl says AfD victory points to Alice Weidel as Germany’s next chancellor

Herbert Kickl sees the AfD’s election victory in Germany as more than a party success. The leader of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, or FPÖ, said voters had rejected the entire established political front and broken through what he called an undemocratic firewall.

“Today, voters not only elected the AfD, but above all voted against the entire front of established parties,” Kickl said, according to Austrian media. He described the result as democracy in practice and said voters had brought down a barrier built by detached elites against the only patriotic force.

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Today, voters not only elected the AfD, but above all voted against the entire front of established parties. At the ballot boxes, they brought down the undemocratic firewall that detached elites had built against the only patriotic force and therefore against the will of their own people. That is democracy in practice.

Kickl compared the AfD’s success in Saxony-Anhalt with the fall of the Berlin Wall. “From today, a strong wind of freedom from 1989 is blowing through Germany again,” he said. “People have taken back their country and their homeland.” He argued that the same unstoppable dynamic was driving a patriotic turn in Austria.

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From today, a strong wind of freedom from 1989 is blowing through Germany again. People have taken back their country and their homeland! What we are experiencing in Germany today is the same unstoppable dynamic driving the patriotic turn in Austria. The arrogant system of elites is coming apart at the seams because citizens no longer want to tolerate it.

His focus, Austrian media reported, was less on Saxony-Anhalt than on Berlin. Kickl predicted that Alice Weidel would become Germany’s next chancellor, saying the AfD’s momentum would ultimately produce a breakthrough with her at its head.

Some Austrian outlets said a similar political shock could take place in Austria, where current polls put the FPÖ at about 40% support. Austria is currently governed by a coalition of the conservative ÖVP, the Social Democrats and the liberal Neos. Kickl regularly calls the coalition artificially created and continues to insist that he will become Austria’s next chancellor.

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With her, trust is also growing in those political forces that are the only credible ones capable of standing on the side of citizens. The citizen-led patriotic turn in Germany, driven by the AfD, is gaining momentum and will ultimately achieve its breakthrough with Alice Weidel as chancellor.