Germans go to the polls Sunday. Chancellor Scholz's Social Democrats are likely to lose to the conservative CDU party, as the right-wing Alternative for Germany party is likely to make gains.

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.

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.

United States of America tech billionaire, Elon Musk has asked citizens of Germany to vote for Alternative for Germany, AfD, party, in the Sunday, February 23, 2025 general election. Musk, who became US president Donald Trump’s adviser,

After the highly unusual U.S. interventions, the AfD remains in second place heading into Germany’s federal election on Sunday.