STUTTGART, Germany, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed on Friday not to let the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party "ruin" Germany and told his fellow conservatives to prepare for a raw new climate of great-power competition.
Merz's message to the Christian Democrat (CDU) party's conference in Stuttgart reiterated points he made at last weekend's Munich Security Conference, saying the "rules based order we knew no longer exists". He also made calls for economic reform, and a rejection of antisemitism and the AfD, which is aiming to win its first state election this year.
