The Economist.
Hi, I'm Zannie Minson-Bettos, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist and host of The Insider.
It's a weekly video show for subscribers that you can watch on The Economist's app or online.
Today, we're bringing The Insider to our podcast listeners.
For this episode, I travel to Berlin to interview Alice Weidel.
She is co-leader of the Alternative for Germany, AFD for short.
Her party came out on top in two recent state elections, and it's leading in national polls by a wide margin.
Unlike other parties of Europe's populist right, the AFD appears to be growing more hard-line as it gains momentum.
It is staunchly pro-Russia.
It wants to end all support for Ukraine.
It rails against what it sees as Germany's self-destructive embrace of mass migration
and calls for the re-migration of many foreigners.
To many Germans, the AFD's rise has alarming echoes of a dark period in the country's past.
Ms Weidel herself is an unusual standard-bearer for such a party.
She's a self-proclaimed libertarian conservative, an ex-banker
who lives part-time in Switzerland with her Sri Lankan wife and who admires Margaret Thatcher.
I wanted to understand what she believes in and what she would try to achieve
if she manages to lead her party to power nationally.
Here's our conversation for The Insider in full.
Alice Weidel, thank you for joining me on The Insider.