In Germany, the
far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is gaining popularity, with a recent poll putting it in second place – ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD.
A YouGov poll published on Friday (9 June) found that 20% of German voters would give their vote to the far-right AfD, making it the second-strongest party behind the CDU (28%) and ahead of Scholz’s SPD (19%).
The AfD was originally founded as a Eurosceptic outfit, in recent years shifting to the populist right with a focus on migration. Since the beginning of the year, it has experienced an unexpected surge in popularity, overtaking the Greens, another member of Scholz’s three-way coalition, in mid-April, according to polls.
“We have a unique selling proposition. As opposed to everyone else, we say that sanctions don’t mean harm for Russia but for our own population,” Tino Chrupalla, co-chair of the party, told ZDF.
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“The topic of migration has recently become much more important again and when that topic is on top of the agenda, the AfD always surges in polls,” Jun told EURACTIV.
“The reason is that a considerable number of people are sympathetic to the AfD stance on the matter. There is no majority among Germans in favour of liberal migration policies but rather an inclination towards a more restrictive position,” he explained.
The number of asylum claims in Germany has increased by 80% between January and March 2023 compared to the same period last year, according to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.
Party popularity
Jun also sees the reason for the AfD’s success in the lack of popularity of the so-called “traffic-light” coalition. The SPD, Greens and FDP have enmeshed themselves in prickly infighting over energy policy and spending. According to several polls, the coalition no longer has a majority.
“The protest vote plays a role when a government does not manage to satisfy voters with its politics – and that is currently the public perception of the traffic-light coalition,” Jun said.
The current success of the party is yet not at all unprecedented. In 2017, at the first federal election after the migration crisis of 2015, the AfD raked in 12.6% of votes, making it the largest opposition party in parliament. Moreover, a national poll saw it in second place ahead of the SPD at 18% in 2018.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/all/news/germany-far-right-overtakes-scholzs-spd-in-new-poll/
So now they are thinking of BANNING the AfD to 'save democracy".