Hundreds of thousands of people took the streets across Germany this weekend as the nation enters a second week of protests against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Around 100,000 gathered outside the Bundestag in Berlin alone, said the police, with up to 200,000 counted by the organizers in Bavaria’s Munich. Significant turnout was also reported in the cities that represent traditional the AfD voting strongholds in eastern Germany, like Leipzig and Dresden.
Support for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) hit an all-time high of 23% in a poll on Tuesday as the party continued to benefit from the fallout of a budget crisis. Although the ruling coalition last week agreed a budget for next year after a court ruling upended its financial plans, mainstream parties fear that economic uncertainty could push voters to the AfD before elections in three eastern states next year. The Forsa poll put the AfD up one percentage point from last week, a record high for the institute, closing the gap with the opposition conservative bloc which was unchanged at 31%. The radical left Linke slipped one point to 3% while other parties were unchanged. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) were on 14% and the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats, who share power with the SPD, were on 13% and 5% respectively.
Support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) dropped slightly in two polls published on Tuesday after 10 days of nationwide protests against the far-right party, although it remained firmly in second place. Support for the AfD dropped 2 percentage points to 20% in a Forsa poll, the lowest level in four months. The party remained behind the opposition conservatives on 31% but still well ahead of all the three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left coalition, who together were polling 32%. The AfD dropped 1.5 percentage points on the week to 21.5% in the poll by the German Institute for New Social Answers (INSA), behind the conservatives on 30.5% and the ruling coalition on 31%. “The demonstrations against the AfD are supported by 37% of Germans and they are showing an impact,” INSA chief Hermann Binkert said.
It seems like it has only gone down 1.5% since the protests. 20% support is quite worrying.
It looks like the numbers of polls from INSA in 2024 were 7 and the percentage number for AfD varied from 18 to 23.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_German_federal_election#2024
[edit: So in that sense one could rightfully argue that we saw a raise for AfD in 2024, despite the drop in the last few days.]
