AfD now strongest in one German poll, secret services surveilling it for ultra-right extremism
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has become the strongest political party in the public opinion polls in Germany for the first time ever. According to a survey published by the Ipsos agency, the AfD would win 25 % of the vote if elections were held right now.
That same poll found the conservative CDU/CSU, which won February’s early parliamentary elections, would win just 24 % of the vote today. The AfD is considered a populist, right-wing to ultra-right party with which the other parties in the Bundestag refuse to collaborate.
The AfD’s support in such surveys has grown recently, and in one published on Saturday by the INSA agency the party got the same result as the CDU/CSU for the first time ever. Both scored 24 %.
In the published poll from the Ipsos agency, the AfD pulled ahead of the conservatives for the first time by one percentage point. In February’s snap elections to the Bundestag, the CDU/CSU led by Friedrich Merz won with 28.5 % of the vote, while the AfD came in second with 20.8 %.
According to the Ipsos poll, support for the postcommunist party The Left rose significantly, which would get 11 % of the vote if elections were held right now. In the February elections The Left scored 8.8 % and had been projected to fall out of the national legislature altogether last fall.
The Green Party would also win 11 % of the vote today, according to polls, which is roughly the same as its February result of 11.6 %. Support for the Social Democrats (SPD) is still falling, to 15 % in the polls.
During the February voting the SPD got 16.4 % of the vote, its worst result in postwar history. As of this writing, the CDU/CSU and the SPD are negotiating the composition of their coalition government and German media report that the agreement could be announced very soon.
The AfD would become the strongest opposition party in the Bundestag once the government forms. At the national level, it is under the watchful eye of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the German equivalent of counterintelligence, due to suspicions of far-right extremism.
In three eastern states – Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia – local secret services consider the AfD to demonstrably be an ultra-right party. It is also suspected of ultra-right activities in another six states.
Public opinion polls reflect the current mood in society; the Ipsos poll was performed on 4 and 5 April with a sample of 1,000 people. The regularly scheduled federal elections in Germany will not be held until the year 2029.
