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.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz has ruled out any such alliance but caused uproar last month by bringing a motion to parliament that was passed with AfD votes, breaching a long-standing taboo.

As an openly gay politician who lives with her Sri Lanka-born partner in Switzerland, Alice Weidel was an unusual choice to many to lead Germany's far-right and anti-immigration AfD into

Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is celebrating what it calls a "historic" victory in the national elections, securing

Alice Weidel, has vowed to "chase" the country's other parties if her party goes into opposition. The CDU/CSU centre-right bloc is leading according to initial projects, and its leader Friedrich Merz has repeatedly ruled out a coalition with the AfD.