The countdown is on to what is perhaps Europe's most important election of this year. On February 23, Germans go to the polls in a parliamentary vote, following the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition in November. The conservative CDU-CSU is the favourite, but no party looks likely to win a majority, and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is polling strongly. We sit down with an important player in the CSU: Manfred Weber, who is the president of the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament. We talk about the far right in Germany and Europe, Elon Musk’s support for the AfD, the EU’s relations with US President Donald Trump, and why the EPP is putting more focus on competitiveness and the European car industry.

We begin with the political situation in Germany. "The current government, the 'traffic light coalition', has failed," Weber asserts. "We are going to elections half a year before the regular date. That gives you a clear indication that [Chancellor] Olaf Scholz and the current government couldn’t make it any more. And now the centre-right CDU-CSU – the European People’s Party in Germany – has to show leadership. That’s up to [CDU] leader Friedrich Merz to show this. We are quite strong in the polls, and we try to convince people."

In response to accusations that Merz has broken the "cordon sanitaire" around the far right by tacitly aligning with the AfD in a parliamentary motion on tougher immigration rules, Weber insists that there will be no coalition between the conservatives and the AfD after the election. "This is unthinkable in Germany," he states. "The AfD says that Germany should leave the European Union, that it should leave NATO. This is really crazy, and not in Germany’s interest at all. So our firewall is clear. No cooperation with the AfD." Weber goes on: "Also at the European level we defend three principles (when discussing cooperation): being pro-Europe, pro-Ukraine and pro-rule of law. Everyone can be sure of that."

Asked whether close Trump ally Elon Musk's public support for the AfD constitutes election interference or is simply freedom of speech, Weber answers: "Even a tech billionaire can have strange political ideas. That's free speech. He can say whatever he wants to say. What is not acceptable is that he is using X as a platform to support the AfD. That is not allowed under our rules in Europe – the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act. My message is clear: the rules for our European communication and digital world are not made in Musk’s headquarters, nor in the White House. They are made here, in the European Parliament."

Other parties have accused the EPP of backsliding on agreements to phase out the internal combustion engine by 2035. But Weber links this issue to the competitiveness of Europe’s cars. "We are losing thousands of jobs every day in Europe," he affirms. "The backbone of our European industry is at stake. We have to win back our strength in global competitiveness. This is the number one priority for the EPP."

Weber insists this does not mean undermining the EU’s climate objectives. "I want to be a proud European, I want us to achieve our climate goal: zero neutrality in 2050,” he says. "The majority (of cars) will be electric cars, don’t get me wrong," he adds. "But we should leave it to engineers, companies and consumers to decide on the technology that will lead us to these climate goals. And I see in my talks with Renew and the Socialists that there is a growing awareness about the need to look at our car industry."

The EPP is still being courted by the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), whose boss suggests the EPP should build "ad hoc, technical majorities" with forces to the right of the EPP in order to push back on, for instance, environment-related regulations. Is Weber open to that? "Some of the statements from the far right are simply crazy," he exclaims. "I read the letter from [Patriots for Europe head] Jordan Bardella, telling us that we should get rid of the whole Green Deal. I'm sorry, but this is bullshit!"

We then turn to US President Donald Trump and his threat of tariffs on European goods. Can the EU make a deal with self-professed dealmaker Trump? "We can buy products from America. There are options there," Weber responds. "But probably the most important offer we can make to Donald Trump is, 'please let’s join forces to have a common China policy'. I was in Washington in December and the number one issue there was how to answer China’s global ambitions. And on this, Europe and America have a common interest. Together we are around 50 percent of global GDP. We can still write and draft the global agenda of tomorrow."

Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Luke Brown and Isabelle Romero