MUNICH — US Vice President JD Vance met on Friday (Feb 14) in Munich with the leader of Germany's far-right AfD, his office confirmed, after endorsing the party as a political partner — a stance Berlin dismissed as unwelcome election interference.

An official in Vance's office did not provide further details of the meeting, but said that Vance met with leaders of all of Germany's major political parties, according to the pool report.

A spokesperson for AfD leader Alice Weidel confirmed the meeting, saying the two met at Vance's hotel for about 30 minutes and discussed the Ukraine war, German domestic policy and freedom of speech.

The anti-immigration AfD, currently polling at around 20 per cent ahead of the Feb 23 general election, has pariah status among other major political parties in a country with a taboo about far-right politics because of its Nazi past.

In a policy dubbed the "firewall", parties have formed a consensus not to work with the AfD, which is under surveillance by the German domestic intelligence service.

In an apparent reference to the catchword, Vance said: "Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There's no room for firewalls."

"No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants," Vance also said, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio due to be broadcast on Sunday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticized Vance's remarks as highly unusual, adding that Germany had a firewall against extreme right-wing parties for a good reason, citing Germany's past under National Socialism.

Germany's defence minister on Friday rebuffed Vance's criticism of German and European political powers as unacceptable.

"This democracy was just called into question by the US Vice President, not just the German democracy but that of Europe as a whole," Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

"If I understand him correctly he compares the condition of Europe with what prevails in some authoritarian regimes ... this is not acceptable," he added.

Conservative leader Friedrich Merz, whom polls show is likely to be Germany's next chancellor, was accused by rivals last month of breaking the firewall by initiating parliamentary motions that relied on AfD support.

But he, too, has ruled out forming a government with the far-right party.

Earlier on Friday, a German government spokesperson said Vance should not interfere in Germany's election, when asked about a Wall Street Journal report in which Vance was quoted as saying he would urge German politicians to work with all parties including the AfD.

"I don't think it is right for foreigners, including those from friendly foreign countries, to interfere so intensively in an election campaign in the middle of an election period," the German government spokesperson said at a press conference.

Billionaire US businessman Elon Musk, the biggest donor to President Donald Trump's election effort and now head of Trump's task force to cut US government spending, has publicly backed the AfD.

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Source: Reuters