I'm John Datsworth, my colleague Judy Dempsey. She's in Berlin for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

And Judy has educated me that alternative for Deutschland, AFD, is a powerful party in the east of the country, the old eastern Germany, once

under the boot of Moscow.

There are inroads into the west of the country in local elections.

There's some strength that's been shown, not a lot.

The question is, what is AFD coming up in the new year, 26? And why this matters is because

for reasons that cannot entirely be explained, powerful young members of the Republican Party

or the right side of the equation in the U.S.

I'm thinking of Mr. Vance and Mr. Musk in particular,

have shown an affinity for AFD as if it's something that they find comparable

to the way the Republican Party is dividing itself into right and left.

I don't know if that's true because Musk makes headlines

that don't have any substance to them. They're just about a rich man. Judy, AFD, are they doing

things that connect to the U.S.? Are they sympathetic in some fashion to this Musk and Vance attention

to them? Or is that behind them?

Last time we talked about AFD, you said they were trying to regularize their policy, trying

to act diplomatic. Oh, that was a long time ago when we mentioned the diplomatic language, John.

I mean, this was about seven or eight sessions ago.

But now the FD are almost neck and neck with Chancellor Mercer's coalition of the Christian Democrats and the Christian Social Union.

And it's really worrying.

One is on 27%.

Mercer is declining.

...