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.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday launched forceful attacks on Romania's decision to cancel its presidential election in December. Vance said the cancellation meant Romania does not share American values,