German Far-Right Still On Track for Regional Election Win

(Bloomberg) -- The Alternative for Germany remains on course to win September’s election in Saxony, suggesting recent protests against the far-right party aren’t denting its support in the eastern region around Dresden.

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The AfD would get 35%, up from the 27.5% they won at the most recent state vote in 2019, according to an Infratest Dimap poll for public broadcaster MDR published Thursday. The conservative Christian Democrats — presently the ruling party in the region — would finish second on 30%, down from 32.1% in 2019, while Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats would score 7%; level with the Greens.

A new group established by former Left party member Sahra Wagenknecht would get 8% if it ran in the same election, the Jan. 18-23 survey of 1,177 voters showed.

Hundreds of thousands of people — including Scholz and his ministers — have joined demonstrations against the AfD since the publication of a Jan. 10 report that revealed officials from the party attended a meeting where a Nazi-like “re-migration” scheme was discussed.

Scholz on Wednesday reiterated his view that the best way to address the rise of the AfD is to tackle the party in the political arena, rather than seeking to ban it — as some are advocating.

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In an interview with Die Zeit newspaper, Scholz said he had joined the protest in his Potsdam constituency in his capacity as a “citizen,” and called right-wing populism “poison for our coexistence and our democracy.”

Backing for the AfD is particularly strong in the former communist eastern states. In addition to Saxony, it’s on course to become the strongest party in Brandenburg and Thuringia in September elections there, according to polls.

That will complicate the formation of viable regional governments, as the mainstream parties have all said they won’t cooperate with the AfD.

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