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Alternative for Germany tops list of German parties with record 26%

CDU/CSU bloc is still ranked at 25%

BERLIN, April 22. /TASS/. The popularity of the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) continues to rise, having reached a record-setting high of 26%, according to the results of a survey conducted by the Forsa market research and opinion polling company commissioned by the RTL and NTV channels.

Thus, two weeks before Germans choose a new chancellor, the AfD is at the top of the rankings of Germany’s political forces, getting ahead of the conservative alliance of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU).

The level of support for the AfD has increased by two percentage points in one week while the CDU/CSU bloc is still ranked at 25%. Thus, for the first time ever, the Alternative for Germany party is ahead in the rankings of German political parties in surveys carried out by Forsa. According to the poll, 15% (no change) are ready to vote for the Social Democratic Party of Germany of interim Chancellor Olaf Scholz, while the Greens dropped one percentage point, garnering 11%.

The Left Party is supported by 9% of respondents. The rating of the Free Democratic Party has slightly improved, reaching 4%. The level of support for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance - Reason and Justice has stayed the same at 4%.

Respondents were also asked whether the CDU’s leader Friedrich Merz will govern the country better than Scholz. The results showed that 53% answered in the negative. That said, 42% think that Merz will do a better job.

The poll was conducted on April 15-17, surveying a total of 1,502 respondents.

The Alternative for Germany Party emerged in April 2013 amid economic troubles in the Eurozone and a debt crisis in Greece. For a long time, the party focused mainly on the economic agenda, however, as the migrant crisis in Germany and the EU exacerbated, its popularity began to grow precisely due to the refugee issue. In Germany it is considered a right-wing populist party. Other political forces do not believe a coalition with it is possible either at the federal or at the regional level. At snap elections to the Bundestag on February 23, the AfD came in second for the first time since its inception.

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