Spanish minister targets AfD leader Alice Weidel over alleged political contradictions

Óscar Puente took aim at Alice Weidel after the AfD’s sweeping victory in Saxony-Anhalt, arguing that the party leader’s personal life sits uneasily with policies defended by her own organization.

The Spanish transport minister posted a photograph of Weidel on X and described her as the leader of Germany’s far-right AfD. He referred to her marriage to a woman born in Sri Lanka and her residence in Switzerland, concluding: “A perfect example of do as I say, not as I do.”

The post drew reactions on social media, with some users calling it sexist. One asked Puente, a Socialist Party minister, whether being gay was incompatible with belonging to the far right. Puente replied that the striking point was the combination of political positions and personal circumstances.

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A perfect example of do as I say, not as I do.

“Leading an openly homophobic party that opposes same-sex marriage, is anti-immigration and supports closing borders, while being homosexual, married to someone of the same sex, an immigrant and living outside the country whose borders you want to close is quite strange. Perhaps it is because I am from the PSOE and find it difficult to understand,” he wrote.

Weidel, 47, is in a relationship with Sarah Bossard, a Swiss film producer born in Sri Lanka, and they have two children. Weidel says her main residence and political activity remain in Germany, although the family spends much of its time in Switzerland.

The dispute followed a major electoral advance for AfD. The party won about 44% in Saxony-Anhalt, ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, which took 17.5%, and the Social Democratic Party, which won 9.2%. AfD became the largest force in the regional parliament with 39 of 83 seats, but it cannot govern alone. The effort to find partners will test the traditional parties’ “firewall” against the far right.

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Leading an openly homophobic party that opposes same-sex marriage, is anti-immigration and supports closing borders, while being homosexual, married to someone of the same sex, an immigrant and living outside the country whose borders you want to close is quite strange. Perhaps it is because I am from the PSOE and find it difficult to understand.