The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) came under heavy fire on Sunday as Chancellor Olaf Scholz faced off with his rivals in a four-way TV debate just one week before national elections.
Scholz said Germany has learnt the lessons from its Nazi past. “There is no cooperation with the far-right,” he said.
The chancellor further recalled comments by the AfD’s co-founder referring to the Nazi regime as “just bird shit” in 1,000 years of German history.
The AfD’s candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel, refused to criticize the comments in Sunday’s debate, labelling her party as a “liberal conservative” party.
“You can insult me here tonight all you like. You are insulting millions of voters,” she said. “It doesn’t affect me at all. I represent these voters.”
Conservative leader Merz called the AfD “a radical, largely extremist right-wing party” and promised that his centre-right CDU/CSU alliance would not cooperate with the party in the next parliament.
