Leaked emails show AfD co-leader once condemned Höcke, now backs him
Hacked internal AfD communications show that co-leader Alice Weidel privately criticised Björn Höcke a decade ago and sought his expulsion. She now praises him and considers him suitable for a federal cabinet post.
Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), privately denounced influential party figure Björn Höcke about a decade ago for racist arguments and Nazi-era language, and sought to have him expelled. She now praises Höcke, who leads the AfD in the state of Thuringia, and says he is suitable for a federal cabinet position. The reversal emerges from a large leak of internal AfD communications, reported by Politico and WELT.
The leak
Hackers released more than 420,000 emails and roughly 48,000 documents this week. An anonymous spokesperson told Die Zeit the attack was not politically motivated in the sense of supporting another party, and that the material was published for transparency and public accountability. The AfD confirmed the breach, saying hackers attacked a hosting provider in late September, and called the leak an attack on the German party system and democracy itself.
What Weidel wrote
WELT examined emails from one of Weidel's accounts covering 2015 to 2017. In October 2015 she warned that the party's proximity to Pegida, an anti-Islam street movement, and to the neo-Nazi NPD was alienating conservative voters. She called a Höcke speech contrasting a "life-affirming African expansionary type" with a "self-negating European placeholder type" deeply problematic, because the reasoning was racial.
In January 2017 Höcke gave a speech to the AfD youth wing calling Berlin's Holocaust memorial a "memorial of shame" and demanding a "180-degree turn in the politics of memory." Weidel filed a motion to expel him, accusing him of using vocabulary from Hitler and endorsing the "Führerprinzip." She later blocked the motion from being recorded in leadership meeting minutes, arguing that more controversy would hurt the party. Höcke acknowledged the speech was a mistake, and Weidel welcomed his letter as a positive signal.
Her current position
In a 2025 BILD interview, Weidel answered "Yes" when asked whether Höcke was suitable for a federal cabinet position. Asked by WELT to explain the contrast, she declined to comment. Höcke's spokesperson did not respond to Politico's request.
