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PULSE POINTS
❓WHAT HAPPENED: Germany’s populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is now the most popular political force in the country, according to a new poll.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Alternative for Germany (AfD), Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, AfD leader Alice Weidel.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The poll was released on August 12.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The citizens have finally had enough of a Union that not only seamlessly continues the policies of the [former government] but even expands them. Mr. Merz has become intolerable after just 100 days—time for an AfD government!” – Alice Weidel.
🎯IMPACT: The AfD’s rise in popularity comes amid other European populist parties rising in the polls, with voters increasingly disillusioned with establishment political parties and their globalist platforms.
IN FULL
A new poll released Tuesday has revealed a dramatic shift in Germany’s political landscape, showing the populist, anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the most popular party in the country. According to a survey conducted by the Forsa Institute for Social Research and Statistical Analysis, 26 percent of German voters would support the AfD if a federal election were held now.
This result places the AfD ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s notionally center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), formerly led by Angela Merkel, and its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), now on 24 percent support.
The figures are expected to heighten concerns among establishment leaders across Europe. In neighboring France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is already leading comfortably, and right-wing populist parties have recently made significant electoral gains across the continent, from Poland and Romania to Portugal and the Netherlands.
In the United Kingdom, Nigel Farage’s Reform Party also outpaces establishment parties in current polls, reflecting widespread dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s leftist Labour Party government.
Though some polls still show Germany’s conservative Christian Democrats narrowly ahead of the AfD in a compilation of multiple surveys, the populist party has seen a steady rise since February’s federal election, when it captured nearly 21 percent of the vote in its strongest showing to date. The AfD currently holds the position of the largest opposition party in the Bundestag (federal legislature).
Under the leadership of Alice Weidel, a former economist, the party has adopted a staunchly anti-mass migration platform. Weidel commented on the polling, saying, “The citizens have finally had enough of a Union that not only seamlessly continues the policies of the [former government] but even expands them. Mr. Merz has become intolerable after just 100 days—time for an AfD government!”
Some establishment politicians believe the AfD should be outlawed and banned as the party becomes more popular with voters.
Image by Olaf Kosinsky.
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