As an openly gay politician who lives with her Sri Lanka-born partner in Switzerland, Alice Weidel was an unusual choice to many to lead Germany's far-right and anti-immigration AfD into Sunday's elections.

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) leader Alice Weidel is a striking contrast to the party she represents. A gay woman raising two sons with her Sri Lankan-born partner, she leads a party that opposes same-sex marriage and champions 'traditional family values'.

Alice Weidel, the first ever candidate of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party for the post of Chancellar, lives with her partner and two children in Switzerland.

In a relationship with a woman of foreign origin, the AfD leader nonetheless assumes an anti-immigration rhetoric and unabashedly makes references to the Third Reich. This position has earned her the endorsement of Elon Musk and US Vice President JD Vance,

As Dr Weidel took the stage in Halle, the crowd started a chant that was a not-too-subtle play on a Nazi slogan, “Everything for Germany,” a phrase once carved on the knives of Nazi storm troopers. It is banned in Germany.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is set to make major gains in Sunday's crucial election, and while it's leader holds typical nationalist and anti-foreigner views, her story is far from that of a quintessential extremist.

The leading candidate, Friedrich Merz, a conservative who has adopted many of the AfD’s hard-line positions on immigration, used his closing statement of the debate to promise his voters that he would never allow the AfD into his government. Under him, he said, the firewall would hold.

Party officials feel they can secure a blocking minority in the next Bundestag, the point when Weidel will become Germany’s most uncomfortable and unavoidable politician

As Germany heads to the polls, a look at the politician cultivating the anti-immigrant party’s ‘image of competence’.

Alice Weidel, has vowed to "chase" the country's other parties if her party goes into opposition. The CDU/CSU centre-right bloc is leading according to initial projects, and its leader Friedrich Merz has repeatedly ruled out a coalition with the AfD.