For the first time, a poll has shown that 22 percent of eligible voters would vote for the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), putting the party four points ahead of the ruling Social Democrats (SPD) and solidly in second place.
The poll, conducted by the Ipsos polling institute, showed that the party had gained three points in just one month. The party has scored a string of victories in the last month, including its first-ever district administration race and its first mayorship. While the poll shows the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) in first place at 26 percent, the party has dropped four points and is now within four points of the AfD.
The head of political and social research at Ipsos, Robert Grimm, described the AfD’s extreme gains in the polls as a “drumbeat,” with Grimm saying that German citizens have rarely been “as dissatisfied with the development of the country as they are at the present time.”
Grimm stated the governing left-wing parties are facing internal conflicts and “are slow to push ahead with their major projects, such as the energy turnaround and digitization.”
However, the headwinds facing the country on various fronts are also playing a key role in the AfD’s rise, with Grimm stating: “The country is in an economic mess, and there are no immediate solutions in sight for the concerns of the population — inflation, rising rents, falling real wages, the Ukraine war and migration.”
The Ipsos expert also said that the government’s “unconstructive handling” regarding the AfD’s success in the east of the country and the “frequent generalization of its electorate” as being far-right have only served to make the party more popular.
As Remix News reported, Robert Sesselmann became the first AfD politician to win a district in Germany, with over 52 percent of the vote last month. However, the government of Thuringia indicated it was conducting a “check” on the candidate to see if his democratic victory was suitable for democracy. Since then, the government has signaled his victory can go through, but the move was seen as highly undemocratic by many Germans and may have strengthened the AfD’s anti-establishment position.
Federal president says AfD gains ‘worrying’
The AfD’s new polling high of 22 percent comes shortly after German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who belongs to the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD), described the record poll figures for the AfD as “worrying.”
During an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF, he stated that the party’s recent results “should not lead us to automatically classify every critical question as populism and right-wing extremism.”
He indicated that the AfD raises questions to which many people expect answers, such as regarding inflation, migration or the Ukraine war. “These are questions that politics must deal with,” he said.
However, Steinmeier did not hesitate to attack the party for contributing to the “brutalization of debate.” He said there is no room for the “business of fear-mongers in this society” and that Germans must learn to “conduct democratic disputes with each other without breaking out into hatred and agitation.”