The far-right AfD likely will score its best ever result as Europe's ailing economic powerhouse lurches rightwards. The conservative CDU/CSU bloc is set to win, but will be unlikely to secure a majority.

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.

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.