The AfD has shifted steadily rightward since its founding in 2013 as a Euroskeptic force, mobilizing an increasingly radicalized base largely around migration.
Lately, however, Weidel has tried to tone down the rhetoric to make her party more palatable to mainstream conservatives. It is currently moving to ban Kevin Dorow, a board member of its youth organisation, for remarks that “obviously suggested a closeness to National Socialism”, Die Welt reported.
The strategy could test the long-standing firewall that has kept Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right bloc from governing with the far right.
A good electoral result in the state of Baden-Württemberg next week could signal that these efforts are paying off. AfD has not performed well historically in the southwestern state, and its candidates are currently polling in third with 19 percent, much higher than its nine percent result five years ago.
The party also enjoys some momentum in Berlin, where an Insa survey put the AfD in second place with 17 percent — the first time the party has ranked so highly in the city-state, although it is neck and neck with three parties on the left ahead of the elections in September.
The legal fight is far from over, though.