The leading candidate, Friedrich Merz, a conservative who has adopted many of the AfD’s hard-line positions on immigration, used his closing statement of the debate to promise his voters that he would never allow the AfD into his government. Under him, he said, the firewall would hold.

Elon Musk has continued his public association with Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, sending a congratulatory post on X to the party’s co-chair Alice Weidel following the election results last night in Germany.

Who is Germany’s election winner and how will he fare against AfD leader Alice Weidel? - Friedrich Merz has taken aim at the US and says Europe must stand up for itself

The Christian Democrats won with 28.6% of the vote while the far-right Alternative for Germany came second with 20.8%.

Merz’s priority will be to form a government with the third-placed Social Democrats (SPD), led by Germany’s current Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, which secured its lowest ever proportion of the vote since the Second World War (16.4 per cent).

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) leader Alice Weidel is a striking contrast to the party she represents. A gay woman raising two sons with her Sri Lankan-born partner, she leads a party that opposes same-sex marriage and champions 'traditional family values'.

Gemany's far-right AFD leader Alice Weidel enjoyed the vocal support of several international far-right figures ahead of this Sunday's legislative elections in which her party scored its

In a relationship with a woman of foreign origin, the AfD leader nonetheless assumes an anti-immigration rhetoric and unabashedly makes references to the Third Reich. This position has earned her the endorsement of Elon Musk and US Vice President JD Vance,

As Germany heads to the polls, a look at the politician cultivating the anti-immigrant party’s ‘image of competence’.

Concern is growing over the far-right Alternative for Germany party’s rise ahead of the German election. Its U.S. supporters include Elon Musk and JD Vance.

Single parties rarely win majorities in German elections, so Friedrich Merz's CDU will need the support of one or more parties to secure a majority in government. His most likely