Germany's Next Chancellor Will Have to Navigate 'The End of the Liberal World Order'

U.S. Vice President JD Vance delivered a scathing lecture on democracy ahead of Germany 's election.

Vance 's words were nothing less than a rallying cry against the German political mainstream's Brandmauer , or firewall, policy against the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

The mainstream parties rule out forming a government with the AfD.

The election campaign is a joke, says Frank Sauer of the University of the Bundeswehr Munich's Metis Institute .

Germany 's next chancellor will have to thoroughly rework the country's foreign policy.

If the next German chancellor flies to Washington to cut a bilateral deal, 'that will be the end of the EU ,' says Laura von Daniels of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs .

Funke believes that the most likely outcome will be a coalition between the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats .

Tariffs on steel and aluminum are set to go into effect in mid-March , which von Daniels calls a "minor blow" She believes that the U.S. will go after the German automotive industry next.

"That will be the moment when the German electorate really understands that this is economic pressure that Germany needs to take seriously," von Daniels says.