German far-rightist claims Holocaust "politically instrumentalised" against her party

Alice Weidel, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has stirred controversy with comments during an interview on German public broadcaster ARD, claiming that the Holocaust is used as a cudgel against her party.  

Weidel, who has positioned the AfD as a nationalist and anti-establishment force, argued that Holocaust remembrance should remain above “day-to-day politics,” Caliber.Az reports, citing Western media.

“I find it quite disturbing when the Holocaust is politically instrumentalized,” Weidel said, adding that remembrance should stand above “day-to-day politics.”

Her statement came in the context of the AfD’s rising popularity, with the party currently polling second ahead of Germany’s national elections on February 23.

The interview quickly became heated when the ARD host confronted Weidel about her dismissive body language—specifically, when she appeared to roll her eyes as the topic of Holocaust remembrance was brought up. Weidel denied the gesture but later referred to efforts to preserve the historical significance of the Holocaust as “pesky,” reinforcing her longstanding criticisms of Germany’s culture of remembrance.

Further stoking outrage, Weidel defended her previous comments about Germany's remembrance culture, which she had described as a “guilt cult.”

She continued to argue that the country's political landscape should be shaped not by historical guilt but by “confidence and responsibility for the future.” When the host raised concerns about the neo-Nazi connotations of the term, Weidel appeared unconcerned, remarking, “I don’t care where the word comes from.”

Weidel’s frustration with the repeated association of her party with Holocaust issues was clear, as she described these discussions as “annoying,” reflecting the AfD’s ongoing discomfort with confronting Germany’s Nazi past.

The interview also revisited Weidel’s controversial remarks from January, when she had called Adolf Hitler a “communist” based on his economic policies—a statement historians widely condemned as factually incorrect. Weidel shrugged off the criticism, remaining defiant in her stance.

By Khagan Isayev