One in five voters in the German election favored the far right. The AfD leader’s dramatic rise terrifies many of the others.

Germany’s federal elections took place this weekend, with the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) winning overall and set to form a coalition government.

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’.

BERLIN: 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 AfD into Sunday's (Feb 23) elections,

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is hoping to win the country's next election, co-leader Alice Weidel said on Monday, one day after the party secured a historic second-place finish on the back of an unprecedented showing in eastern Germany.

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.