The leader of the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Alice Weidel has surged to the top of the polls of preferred chancellors in the upcoming February elections.
In a survey conducted by the INSA polling firm for the BILD newspaper, AfD leader Alice Weidel surged by three points over the previous week to 24 points, surpassing the leader of the centrist neo-liberal Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Friedrich Merz, who fell by one point to 20 per cent since the previous week.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the current candidate for the leftist Social Democrat Party (SPD) languishes in third place, falling one point from last week to 15 per cent support. Scholz is followed by his Economic Minister Robert Habeck, the chancellor candidate for the Greens, at 14 per cent.
The survey, which polled 1,005 people, was conducted between December 18th and 19th, the day before the Christmas market attack in Magdeburg that left at least five dead and over 200 injured.
The attack, allegedly carried out by a migrant from Saudi Arabia, is likely to play a major role in February 23rd elections.
Although the attack happened under the watch of Chancellor Scholz, the suspected attacker was reportedly granted asylum in 2016, under the CDU government of Angela Merkel.
The surge in the polls for Weidel came amid the endorsement of her party by X owner Elon Musk, who declared this week that “only the AfD can save Germany”.
Musk merely expressing his personal opinion on German politics has been branded as election “interference” by leftists in Germany and globalists within the European Union.
The general secretary of the governing Social Democrats, Matthias Miersch said: “No outside interference in the German election campaign – that is a principle that we have to defend,” adding: “We oppose this clearly: Germany needs neither foreign influences nor Trumpism. Stay out, Elon.”
Former EU censorship czar, Thierry Breton, who was accused of meddling in the U.S. presidential election by demanding Musk censor a live interview he held with Donald Trump, also alleged that it was “interference” for X boss to express support for the AfD.
However, the German government has refused to condemn Musk for his comments, with spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann saying: “We have of course taken note of this and of course freedom of expression also applies to X.”
While Weidel and the AfD have surged in the polls, it remains unlikely that the party will enter government following the February elections, given that all other political parties have agreed to a cordon sanitaire around the AfD, meaning that they refuse to form a coalition with the right-wing party.
As a result, the supposedly centre-right CDU/CSU party may be forced into partnering with the leftist SPD of Chancellor Scholz to form a government in a move that would likely entail concessions to the left on migration, fiscal, and energy policies.
