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.

Alice Weidel may not be the person you would imagine at the top of Germany's far-right political movement. What's more, she's a West German at the top of the AfD, which is, and has always been, far stronger in East Germany.

On a wet evening in Suhl, in the former East Germany, a smattering of youthful faces were among hundreds lining up to hear from an unlikely idol - Björn Höcke, one of the most controversial figures in the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Germans will head to the polls Sunday looking for leadership at a deeply uncertain time, but all eyes will be trained on a party likely to finish a distant second.

The head of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) delegation in the European Parliament, René Aust, is counting on at least 21% of the votes in Sunday’s general election, but played down suggestions it mi