Alternative for Germany appears to be headed for the strongest showing by a far-right party since World War II in Sunday’s national election and is fielding its first candidate to lead the country.

Musk has emerged as a fervent supporter of Alternative for Germany, a far-right, anti-immigrant party that is polling in second place ahead of Germany's parliamentary election.

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.