US Vice President JD Vance and tech billionaire Elon Musk have voiced support for the far-right AfD party. All other parties have vowed a \”firewall\” on non-cooperation with the AfD, but Vance said Friday there was \”no room for firewalls\” Vance’s blistering comments became a major topic in the latest TV debate between the four top candidates in the February 23 election. The vote is being held six months earlier than planned after Scholz’s centre-left coalition collapsed in November in a row over budget questions. The campaign has been dominated by the dire state of the economy and a bitter debate on migration after a series of attacks blamed on asylum seekers. The debate was unlikely to produce any \”big changes\” as Merz’s polling lead looks set to hold firm, a polling firm said. The final stage of the campaign gets underway as Europe confronts a growing rift with Washington over the Ukraine war, now raging for almost three years. The AfD’s top candidate Alice Weidel praised Vance for having \”spoken out so clearly\”. \”We have to talk to each other. He made that clear,\” she told the TV audience.
