As the Green Party’s fortunes sink, the fortunes of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party rise, with the AfD now polling ahead of the Greens for the first time since 2018 in two separate surveys.
In a survey from YouGov, the AfD jumped to 17 percent, while the Greens were one point behind at 16 percent.
In a separate Insa survey commissioned by Bild newspaper, AfD is polling at 16 percent and the Green Party at 15.5 percent.
Polling from multiple surveys has shown that the Greens have been losing support for months while the AfD gains.
In July last year, Insa showed that the Greens were ahead by 11 points, with the Greens at 23 percent and AfD at only 12 percent. The war in Ukraine, growing inflation, an energy crisis, and out-of-control immigration have all sunk the Green Party’s fortunes.
The last time AfD was ahead of the Greens was in October 2018, when AfD was at 18 percent and the Greens were at 17 percent.
The latest poll from Insa shows that the Left Party is also suffering following Sahra Wagenknecht’s decision to leave. The party would only score 4 percent, which would leave it ineligible to sit in parliament. The CDU also dropped one point since the last poll, while the SPD rose by 1.5 points.
Over the last year, a number of rival political parties have stepped up calls to ban the AfD as the party grows in popularity. They have claimed that banning one of the country’s major opposition political parties is about “protecting democracy.”
The AfD party has called for an end to sanctions on Russia, arguing they are damaging Germany more than Russia. Germany has long relied on cheap Russian energy to fuel its manufacturing base. AfD has also benefitted from its calls to secure the German border, as the country saw nearly 1.4 million migrants arrive last year, causing a serious crisis for the country.
