The far-right party "Alternative for Germany" (AfD), leading in several recent opinion polls, has emerged as the first political force in yet another one, DPA reported, citing a poll published today by ZDF television, BTA reported.
If the elections were held today, Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative bloc would win 25 percent of the vote, which is one percentage point less than at the end of March. Support for the AfD remains unchanged – 26 percent, with the party maintaining a slight lead.
Support for the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) has fallen by one point to 12 percent, the lowest result for the party in the Zet DF survey conducted by the "Forshungsgruppe Wallen" research institute. With this result, the ruling coalition between Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the SPD will no longer have a majority in the Bundestag (lower house of the German parliament).
The Greens enjoy 14 percent support, while the "Left" has 11 percent. The Free Democratic Party (FDP), which has been largely out of the news in recent months due to its poor results, is up 3 percent.
The poll was conducted between April 14 and 16 among 1,355 eligible voters.
The poll by the research institute "Forshungsgruppe Wallen" is not the first to put the AfD ahead of Merz's conservative bloc. Recent surveys by YouGov, the German INSA institute and the Forza polling agency also rank the anti-immigrant, Eurosceptic party as the leading force.
The biggest gap was seen in the latest YouGov survey, which showed the AfD receiving 27 percent of the vote, compared to 23 percent for Merz's conservative bloc.