Germany's far-right AfD party leads in north-eastern state poll

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) would emerge as the leading party in the north-eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern if state elections were held now, according to a poll released on Thursday.

The infratest dimap survey, commissioned by public broadcaster NDR, signals a shift in the regional political landscape.

It found that 38% of voters would back the AfD, more than double its share in the 2021 state election. By contrast, the ruling Social Democrats would receive 19%, followed by the Christian Democrats at 13% and the Left at 12%.

If these numbers held, the current coalition government of the Social Democrats and the Left party would fall short of an overall majority, with a combined vote share of 31%. The next state election is scheduled for September 20, 2026.

In the 2021 election, the Social Democrats won decisively with 39.6% of the vote and subsequently formed a coalition with the Left party.

The survey was conducted from September 18-23 with 1,151 eligible voters across all ages, genders and education levels in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Opinion polls are subject to uncertainties. Declining party loyalty and increasingly last-minute voting decisions make it difficult for polling institutes to weight the collected data accurately. In general, polls only reflect public opinion at the time of the survey and are not predictions of the election outcome.