Alice Weidel is a politician of contradictions: a German nationalist who lives in Switzerland; a former investment banker who rails against elites; and a lesbian with two adopted sons, leading a party that defines a family as “father, mother and children”.

Yet as our Berlin correspondent, Kate Connolly, explains, despite Weidel’s background – or perhaps because of it – she has risen to the top of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), picked to be its candidate for chancellor in federal elections on 23 February.

As Helen Pidd hears, in many ways Weidel has become the “respectable face” of the AfD, a party that has been dogged by its links to neo-Nazis, allowing it to project a cleaner image to voters across Germany, despite its radical anti-migrant, anti-Muslim platform.

It is a stance that has led to the AfD becoming evermore successful in elections in recent years, with Weidel endorsed live at her campaign launch by the tech billionaire Elon Musk.

And though Weidel is unlikely to become chancellor after the elections – given the refusal of other parties to form a coalition with the AfD – she might still have the influence to push German politics further to the right, and has eyes on gaining power next time around, in five years’ time.