The co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany praised Donald Trump as the “right man” to end the war in Ukraine and urged her country to remain a “neutral mediator” in a heated four-way televised debate ahead of general elections next Sunday.
Europe’s largest country is entering its final week of campaigning as it grapples with a stagnating economy, a fraught immigration debate and profound angst over the fast-deteriorating transatlantic relationship under the new Trump administration, which has openly swung behind the AfD.
During a two-hour primetime show, AfD candidate Alice Weidel emerged as the prime target of Social Democratic chancellor Olaf Scholz, Green party candidate Robert Habeck and Christian Democratic party leader Friedrich Merz. One by one they confronted the far-right politician on topics including the war in Ukraine and her party’s association with Nazi ideology.