The far-right AfD remains second in the polls in Germany

BERLIN, June 3 (DPA/EP) –

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is the second political force in voting intentions with 19 percent support, only behind the Christian Democratic Union (CDU, 27 percent), the main opposition party, and tied with the ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD).

The survey by the INSA demographic institute published by the newspaper ‘Bild am Sonntag’ thus gives the AfD one point more than in the last study and the formation thus reaches a historical maximum of support. The SPD loses one point, while the CDU and its Christian Social Union (CSU) partners also drop one point.

The Greens and the Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), members of the government coalition with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD, remain unchanged from the previous week, with 13 and 9 percent support respectively. The party La Izquierda rises one point to stand at 5 percent of voting intention.

The Deutschlandtrend barometer of the first German public television channel, ARD, also placed the AfD even with the SPD, with 18 percent support.

The AfD’s figures on the intention to vote have been rising in recent months despite the fact that in March 2021 the Federal Information Service (BND, German secret services for the interior) classified the AfD as suspected of being far-right, an assessment which was confirmed by the Cologne Administrative Court of First Instance about a year later. The party denies this and has filed an appeal.