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.

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

Around 250 protesters demonstrated against AfD leader Alice Weidel in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, where she has a home, leading to counter-demonstrations and five arrests. The protest was fueled by opposition to the AfD's far-right stance and increasing support for the party amid economic and immigration concerns.