The ongoing European migrant crisis has led to a serious swing in German public opinion, the main beneficiary of which is the new political party, Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Recent German opinion polls have shown a slip in popularity for the parties of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing ‘grand coalition’, reports German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Voters have turned to the Eurosceptic anti-mass migration AfD, and from Mrs. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and their traditional partners the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU).
AfD has climbed two points which means that for the first time in a national opinion poll it has broken into double figures to poll at 10 per cent.
The newest Insa-Meinungstrend poll shows that Mrs. Merkel’s Union would win 34 per cent of votes were a general election held now, which represents a drop of 1.5 per cent in the last week. The other member of the governing ‘grand coalition’, the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Germany, has lost half a point to fall to 24 per cent.
The head of Insa-Meinungstrend, Hermann Binkert, attributes the changing poll numbers to the migrant crisis. Although it was formed as an anti-Euro party at the height of the European debt crisis, AfD has more recently been pushing the anti-mass migration side of its policies.
The opinion poll shows that AfD, which already has seven MEPs, is establishing itself as a serious minor party in German politics despite some of the infighting of recent months, reported previously by Breitbart London. It now polls only one point behind the Left Party, on a par with the Greens and four points above the classically liberal Free Democratic Party.
The EUobserver website reports a Berlin voter’s comments on AfD:
“The AfD is the only party telling the truth – that Merkel is putting Germany in danger with her open doors policy. The media is supporting her with their lies. She should resign.”
The voter, who attended last weekend’s AfD protest, went on to explain that she does not support PEGIDA because of their “extreme views”, but in the past did support the CDU.
Voters like her who do not identify as ‘far-right’ but have found common cause with AfD over Mrs. Merkel’s handling of the migrant crisis will be a concern to the CDU/CSU Union as Germany nears next March’s regional elections.
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