Weidel became a member of the Bundestag MdB in the federal election , where she was the AfD's lead candidate alongside Alexander Gauland. In , she received a doctorate in international development. He donated a total of , euros by means of straw men for the federal election campaign of Alice Weidel.
Conle disguised his donation from Switzerland in 18 tranches. In January , it emerged that Roland Hartwig โ who had been appointed as an advisor to Weidel โ attended a controversial meeting with German far-right activists in which plans to deport millions of people living in Germany, including some with German citizenship, were presented and discussed. In the wake of this, Weidel fired Hartwig as her advisor.
Weidel vigorously defends economic liberalism and declares former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to be her role model. In terms of economic policy, Weidel argued against the abolition of cash. During the euro area crisis , she has called for economically weak states, such as Greece [ 19 ] Spain and Portugal, to leave or be expelled from the Eurozone.
Weidel expresses support for tax cuts and the abolition of inheritance tax , and opposes the minimum wage. Weidel supports continued German membership in the European Union ; [ 19 ] however, in an interview with the London Financial Times published in January, , Weidel outlined her party's approach in the event of a government takeover: If an attempt by the AfD to resolve the EU's "democratic deficit" were unsuccessful, Germany's exit from the EU would be put to a vote following the example of Great Britain.
Despite her stance on German membership of the EU, she believes that Germany should withdraw from the Eurozone. During the AfD party conference in June , she said that it was in the interests of Germany and Europe that "Ukraine does not belong to the European Union ". In December , Weidel said that German chancellor Angela Merkel was "of course" partly responsible for the rape and murder of Maria Ladenburger. In Weidel criticized the immigration policies of Merkel, stating that "the country will be destroyed through this immigration policy.
