The far-right Alternative for Germany party on Saturday presented its candidate for chancellor in the upcoming elections, Alice Weidel, the Associated Press reports.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD), founded in 2013, has high approval ratings and is currently the second-strongest party in the country after the center-right Christian Democrats. It scores between 18 and 19 percent in national polls.
This is the first time that the AfD has nominated its own candidate for chancellor.
“We want to put Germany back in the lead. We want to be on top all over the world again,” Weidel, 45, an economist by training, said when accepting her candidacy.
Weidel says she will get the country’s ailing economy back on its feet, reverse Germany’s energy transition and severely curtail immigration.