Merkel, Musk and the far right: What is going on in Germany’s election? – POLITICO

BERLIN — Germany’s former leader Angela Merkel has exposed a deep rift within the country’s conservative movement, slamming her party’s top brass over how it’s handling the rise of the far right. 

The anti-migrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been gaining ground in the polls in recent months and is now in second place ahead of Germany’s federal election scheduled for Feb. 23. That poses big questions for the mainstream parties, notably Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is currently the frontrunner. 

For decades, Germany’s history has led mainstream politicians to uphold a so-called firewall to keep the far right out of power. That now looks at risk. The future for Europe’s biggest economy, which has long been a bastion of stability and drearily predictable politics, suddenly looks less clear.