Poll finds 69% of Germans expect the AfD to win a state premiership this autumn
A new INSA poll for Bild am Sonntag found that 69 percent of Germans expect the far-right AfD to win at least one state premiership in the autumn elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin, with 28 percent expecting wins in several states and only 16 percent expecting none. The party leads polls in Saxony-Anhalt at 41 percent ahead of the September 6 vote and has drawn up plans to fill 150 to 200 top administrative posts there. Germans split on how to respond -- 40 percent favoured CDU cooperation with the Left Party to block an AfD government against 36 percent backing CDU-AfD cooperation, and 47 percent opposed banning the party while 38 percent supported a ban.
A majority of Germans now expect the far-right Alternative for Germany to lead a state government for the first time after this autumn's regional elections. An INSA poll for Bild am Sonntag found that 69 percent expect the AfD to win at least one state premiership in the votes in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin; 28 percent expect it to prevail in more than one state, and only 16 percent expect it to win none.
The party is best placed in Saxony-Anhalt, where it leads polls at 41 percent ahead of the September 6 election and has prepared a detailed plan to take over the state administration, identifying 150 to 200 senior posts to fill and recruiting personnel nationwide.
The survey also captured a divided public over how to contain the party. Forty percent favoured cooperation between the CDU and the Left Party to keep the AfD out of power, against 36 percent who backed CDU-AfD cooperation; on a possible ban of the party, 47 percent were opposed and 38 percent in favour.
The findings come as senior AfD figures deepen their ties with Moscow. The chairman of the party's Saxony branch, Jorg Urban, and its Baden-Wuerttemberg chairman, Markus Frohnmaier, are among the Germans expected at the St. Petersburg economic forum in early June -- an event the German business community is rejoining after a four-year absence over the invasion of Ukraine.