Overview
- Alice Weidel publicly distanced herself from passages in the AfD Sachsen-Anhalt programme that describe a ‘intact family’ as mother, father and children and label non‑reproductive lifestyles as ‘sexual deviations’.
- Weidel made the remarks in an RTL/ntv interview on the sidelines of the AfD federal congress and said she lives with a female partner and helps raise two children, adding that same‑sex relationships must be treated as equal.
- She also said a politician can still promote a traditional family as an ideal without that being a contradiction to recognizing equal rights for other family forms.
- The dispute has not produced any reported changes to the state programme or disciplinary steps against Weidel, and it comes as INSA polling from late June shows the AfD leading in Sachsen-Anhalt at about 40–41 percent ahead of the 6 September vote.
- The episode highlights longer‑running tensions between the party’s hard‑right factions and its federal leadership and could affect internal cohesion and voter perceptions in the run‑up to the election.