GEOFF BENNETT: In the German capital of Berlin today, a man was critically wounded in a knife attack at the city's Holocaust memorial.

And the suspected attacker was arrested hours later near the scene with blood on his hands.

All this just two days before voters go to the polls in an election dominated by concerns about immigration.

The country is expected to reject the incumbent left-leaning Chancellor Olaf Scholz in favor of a center-right candidate, followed closely by an anti-immigration party that has the backing of the Trump administration.

Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports now from Germany.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Magdeburg in former East Germany.

Two months have passed since the terror attack by a Saudi Arabian doctor who drove his car into a packed Christmas market, killing a 9-year-old boy, five women, and injuring 300.

The tributes have diminished, but not the grief of Elke Pesch.

ELKE PESCH, Magdeburg, Germany, Resident (through translator): I am so sad.

This should never have happened, absolutely not, never for anyone.

Never.

MALCOLM BRABANT: There have since been two more Islamist attacks in Southern Germany that have claimed four lives and driven Magdeburg street food vendor Diana Daum to despair.

DIANA DAUM, Street Food Vendor (through translator): One attack after another happens.

How far does it have to go?

MALCOLM BRABANT: The attacks have galvanized support for the anti-immigrant AfD, the Alternative for Germany Party.

"Now is the time for our security," says leader Alice Weidel.

"Now is the time for a new beginning."

While the AfD has doubled its popularity since the last election, it's expected to come second, but barred from joining the next governing coalition.

All the opinion polls suggest that the center-right Christian Democrats, the CDU, will win the election and lead Germany's next government.

They have accused the outgoing left-leaning coalition of being soft on immigration.

The CDU is promising to restore law and order and make the country safe again.

Unless there's a major upset, Germany's next chancellor will be Friedrich Merz, a pro-business lawyer.

During a debate with Social Democrat rival Olaf Scholz, Merz warned of the consequences of failing to tackle migration on Germany's flagging economy.

FRIEDRICH MERZ, Leader, Christian Democratic Union of Germany (through translator): Then we will finally slide into right-wing populism, and I am standing here to avoid exactly that.

I will only sign a coalition agreement that includes a turnaround on migration and a turnaround on the economy.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Scholz, the outgoing chancellor, also signaled his willingness to get tough on immigration.

OLAF SCHOLZ, German Chancellor (through translator): Perpetrators must be severely punished, and if they have committed such offenses and do not have German citizenship, then they must certainly expect that we will return them to their country of origin.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Despite its popular support, the AfD is regarded as beyond the pale by all the mainstream parties, and they have agreed a so-called firewall to keep the far right out of office.

But can Merz create a stable coalition government without the support of the AfD?

Cathryn Cluver Ashbrook is a German-American political scientist.

CATHRYN CLUVER ASHBROOK, Bertelsmann Stiftung: If that coalition holds is strong enough in terms of its majority, then he can absolutely push out and sideline the AfD.

Now, is that majority going to be stable enough for the AfD to not hit the coalition with a lot of obstructionism and make their life very hard?

Those are what the numbers on Sunday will show.

Right now, those numbers are very, very tight.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Helped, controversially, by Elon Musk, who declared his support for the AfD when he interviewed Alice Weidel on X. ELON MUSK, Department of Government Efficiency: Only AfD can save Germany, end of story.

ALICE WEIDEL, Leader, AfD Party: Yes, because you rightly said there is a difference of making a law and then enforcing it.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Then Vice President J.D.

Vance entered the fray at the Munich Security Conference.

J.D.

VANCE, Vice President of the United States: What German democracy, what no democracy, American, German or European, will survive is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations, their pleas for relief are invalid or unworthy of even being considered.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Vance's intervention played well in Magdeburg.

DIANA DAUM (through translator): We want to be heard, but we're not being listened to.

The politicians up there do whatever they want.

They lie to us and serve only themselves, instead of serving the people.

ELKE PESCH (through translator): They call themselves Democrats, but behave in a way that is far from democratic in my eyes, especially because they always refer to German history.

This exclusion and marginalization, we have seen that before.

And it must never happen again to anyone, not even to the AfD.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But there was outrage elsewhere.

FRIEDRICH MERZ: We respect the presidential elections and the congressional elections in the U.S., and we expect the U.S. to do the same here.

CATHRYN CLUVER ASHBROOK: Whether it's the defense minister or the chancellor or the president, but also average people feel highly offended by the fact that somebody would attempt to officially meddle in the way that they perceive the functionality of their democracy.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But the AfD's deputy leader, Beatrix von Storch, couldn't be happier.

How important is the endorsement of the United States' vice president?

BEATRIX VON STORCH, Deputy Leader, AfD Party: I don't think that this shifts numbers, but it shows to our enemies that they maybe should be a bit careful and that we have got strong allies.

We have got strong connections towards the United States and towards Russia.

WOMAN: Show me what democracy looks like!

MALCOLM BRABANT: In recent weeks, there have been large protests against Germany's lean to the right.

Actor and musician Herbert Groenemeyer: HERBERT GROENEMEYER, Actor and Musician (through translator): Our democracy is under fierce attack, be it from smear campaigns, disinformation, fake news trolls, or from enemies of democracy and the parties and in the media, who do not just want to jeopardize our peaceful liberal coexistence, but destroy it.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Growing anti-immigrant sentiment worries 27-year-old Syrian refugee Ihab Sukkariya, who fled Damascus 10 years ago to avoid being drafted.

IHAB SUKKARIYA, Syrian Refugee: So I have temporary status here in Germany.

And once the war has ended, which has now ended, I might be sent back to Syria any time.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Sukkariya was one of a million Syrians who followed the migrant trail to Germany nearly 10 years ago, when the then-chancellor, Angela Merkel, threw open the borders.

A fluent German speaker, and he says, fully integrated, Sukkariya is currently unemployed and desperately looking for work to try to secure his future.

IHAB SUKKARIYA: I'm very scared to go back to Syria because Berlin is definitely my home, and I love it here.

I feel comfortable.

I feel accepted, and I blend in.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But German tolerance is no longer guaranteed as this landmark election approaches, with an agenda driven by the buoyant AfD, supported by an unpredictable American administration.

CATHRYN CLUVER ASHBROOK: There's a trust chasm right now between the two sides of the Atlantic that is as deep as it ever was in the history of this relationship over 80 years.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Come Sunday, victory may taste sweet, but, given the current climate, it could ultimately be a poisoned chalice.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Malcolm Brabant in Berlin.