“I find it quite disturbing when the Holocaust is politically instrumentalized,” far-right leader says.
BERLIN — The leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, ignited a fresh wave of controversy following remarks during a Sunday appearance on German public broadcaster ARD, claiming the Holocaust is used as a cudgel against her party.
“I find it quite disturbing when the Holocaust is politically instrumentalized,” Weidel said, adding that remembrance should stand above “day-to-day politics.”
The AfD is currently polling in second place ahead of a national election set for Feb. 23.
The interview grew tense when the ARD host confronted Weidel about visibly rolling her eyes as their interview turned to Holocaust remembrance, before the far-right leader called educational efforts to maintain the historical implications “pesky.”
Weidel denied she had rolled her eyes but doubled down on past controversial remarks, including her description of Germany’s remembrance culture as a “guilt cult” — comments billionaire X-owner Elon Musk backed at a rally in Halle last month.
Defending her use of the term “guilt cult,” on Sunday, Weidel argued German politics should be driven not by historical guilt but by “confidence and responsibility for the future.” When challenged on the phrase’s neo-Nazi connotations, Weidel was dismissive, saying, “I don’t care where the word comes from.”
Weidel’s frustration with the topic was palpable. She described the repeated association of the AfD with Holocaust remembrance as “annoying,” reflecting the party’s ongoing discomfort with confronting Germany’s Nazi past.
The host also pushed Weidel on comments she made in January, when she labeled Adolf Hitler a “communist” due to his economic policies — an assertion historians condemned as factually incorrect. Weidel shrugged that off too.
