Alice Weidel, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), on Saturday said it was a "great day" for her party as she was nominated as its candidate to be chancellor ahead of snap elections in February.
Founded in 2013 to oppose Germany's membership of the euro, the AfD has seen its support gradually rise in recent years as it has seized on fears about migration and a stumbling economy -- especially in the former East Germany.
The party is currently polling at around 18 percent in second place behind the conservatives ahead of February's election, prompting it to name an official chancellor candidate for the first time.
Accepting the nomination, which must still be formally signed off in January, Weidel said her party wanted to "bring Germany forward again".
"We are the second strongest force in the nationwide polls, and from that we clearly derive a claim to government," she said.
"Today is a great day for the party and a great day for Germany."
Weidel, 45, was born and educated in western Germany and later lived in China for a year, working at Bank of China, before moving on to Goldman Sachs.
She now lives in Switzerland with her female partner, who is from Sri Lanka, and commutes to Berlin to take up her seat in the Bundestag lower house of parliament.
- Moderate wing -
As someone born in West Germany who is openly gay and has a non-German partner, Weidel is in some ways a surprising choice as the AfD's candidate for chancellor.
But Weidel has stood out for her ability to avoid being caught up in many of the controversies surrounding her party in recent years.
Weidel, who has described former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as her political role model, belongs to the more moderate wing of the AfD.
She first joined the party in the year it was founded and unlike many other early members, who quit as it became more overtly xenophobic, she stayed.
Weidel's faction within the AfD "aspires to an independent existence to the right of the conservatives, with the possibility of forming a coalition", according to Wolfgang Schroeder, a professor of politics at Kassel University.
But governing together with the centre right is a distant prospect for the AfD since working with the far right remains a major taboo in German politics because of its Nazi history.
As a West German and a gay woman, Weidel has had "some problems connecting with the ideology of her party", according to political scientist Anna-Sophie Heinze from Trier University.
But she has gained broader support by "slowly giving up her initial criticism" of figures like Bjoern Hoecke, a lodestar for the radical right in the party, Heinze said.
- 'Anti-system attitude' -
While Weidel has never hidden her relationship with her partner, with whom she has two children, she has distanced herself from the broader LGBTQ movement.
On Saturday she fought back against accusations that she has failed to engage with the movement, charging that her critics "have no idea at all about the reality of my life".
"And I must honestly say that I will not tolerate any interference in my life or my family," she said.
Ahead of the election campaign, Weidel has adopted a stridently nationalist tone, advocating an exit from the EU, a strict anti-immigration, anti-Islam policy, and a defence of conservative and Christian values.
Compared with other women at the top of far-right parties in Europe, however, Weidel has "less combat experience", according to Schroeder.
While Marine Le Pen in France and Giorgia Meloni in Italy have made inroads into the mainstream, Weidel remains "the opposition within the opposition" in Germany, he said.
Le Pen's National Rally distanced itself from the AfD after the German party was caught up in several controversies earlier this year, including accusations of illicit ties to Russia and China.
The leader of the French far right also announced that she was in "complete disagreement" with the AfD's migration policy after the party was said to be planning mass deportations out of Germany.
While other far-right parties have sought to tack towards the middle or at least soften their image, the AfD "does not want to adapt", Schroeder said.
"Weidel is still anchored in the anti-system attitude," he said.
By Céline Le Prioux