Germany: The far-right Alternative for Germany party continues to advance in opinion polls
Against the backdrop of an opinion poll in which the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party received the same percentage as the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the leader of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), Saskia Esken, on Saturday, April 5, 2025, relied on the expected ruling coalition between her party and the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to give crisis-hit Germany a strong boost and thus reduce the popularity of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD).
“In order to further reduce the popularity of the Alternative for Germany party, it is important that we keep our promises now, formulate a coalition agreement, and set ourselves achievable goals,” the leader of Germany’s Social Democratic Party said upon her arrival at the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) headquarters in Berlin on Saturday.
For the first time, the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is on par with the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) in this opinion poll.
Nearly six weeks after Germany’s general election, the CSU (comprising the Christian Democratic Union and the Bavarian Christian Social Union) and the AfD each received 24% in the weekly poll conducted by the INSA Institute for Opinion Research, commissioned by the German newspaper Bild.
For the AfD, this represents a one-percentage-point increase compared to the last poll, and its best result so far in this periodic survey.
In contrast, the popularity of the Christian Social Union (CSU), led by future Chancellor Friedrich Merz, declined by two percentage points.
The CSU won the general election held on February 23, 2025, with 28.5% of the vote, placing first, while the Alternative for Germany (AfD) received 20.8% of the vote, placing second.
The Social Democratic Party’s popularity remained stable at 16%, while the Green Party and the Left Party each received 11%, a one-percentage-point decline for the former and an increase of the same amount for the latter.
The Free Democratic Party (+1) and the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (-1) each received 4%. The survey included 1,206 Germans between March 31 and April 4, 2025.
Eskin emphasized the need to ensure that public services are reliably available to citizens again, and that they are provided with security, including regarding their jobs, saying, “Then we will fulfill our promises”.
The leader of the German Social Democratic Party, Eskin, noted that significant progress has already been made regarding financial packages for infrastructure and defense, but there are still things that need to be resolved: “How do we stabilize our pensions? How do we ensure that education and healthcare become fairer and more reliable, and much more?”
Eskin said she hoped the coalition talks would conclude successfully soon, but declined to set a specific timeframe.
“I’m very confident we’ll conclude the negotiations, but I can’t give any details about when,” she said.
According to reports, large-scale negotiations between representatives of the ruling coalition parties, scheduled for Sunday, aren’t scheduled to take place.
