The anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has risen to a record level of support as the governing ‘Black-Red’ coalition government fell to a new low after 100 days in power, a survey has found.
A poll of 2,505 German voters by the Forsa research institute for RTL Deutschland saw the AfD rise by two points to a party record 26 per cent support, the highest of any party in the country, edging out the ‘Union’ of Chancellor Friedrich Merz at 24 per cent, Die Welt reports.
Overall support for Merz’s coalition government sank to a combined 37 per cent, as his election-losing Social Democrats (SPD) partners fell to a dismal 13 per cent, putting the party on par with the Greens and barely ahead of the Marxist Die Linke party.
Support for Chancellor Merz also declined to a fresh low, as just 29 per cent of the country approved of his performance at the 100-day mark of his government, while 67 per cent said they were not satisfied with the CDU politician.
It comes amid increasing pessimism about the future of the country, with a mere 14 per cent saying they expect the economic situation to improve, compared to 62 per cent expecting the German economy to continue to decline.
Voters are also pessimistic about any political party being able to turn the country around, with half of voters saying that none of the options have the competence to do so.
Given the poor state of the country, over four in ten voters (43 per cent) said that they did not expect the governing coalition to last until the end of its term in 2027.
Comparing support after 100 days for the previous SPD-run ‘traffic light’ coalition government, which collapsed before the end of its term last year, the current government appears to be on much shakier ground.
According to the ZDF barometer, in March of 2022, the government enjoyed a 75 per cent approval rating, and 73 per cent of the public felt that then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz was performing well. The government ultimately collapsed last year, shortly after the election of Donald Trump in the United States, and the Social Democrats embarrassingly fell to third place in the elections in February, behind the CDU/CSU and the AfD.
Despite the utter collapse of the leftist establishment party, supposedly conservative Chancellor Merz decided to partner with the SPD rather than form a right-wing government with the AfD, upholding the so-called “firewall” around the populist party.
However, Merz’s government may not be content with merely refusing to work with the AfD, with a report earlier this year from Berlin’s BfV political spy agency that branded the party as a “right-wing extremist” organisation, potentially laying the groundwork for the state to outright ban the anti-mass migration party.
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