AfD leads German poll as SPD closes gap before state vote

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) remains the strongest party in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern less than two weeks before the Sept. 20 state election, a new poll showed Thursday.

The Insa survey for the newspaper Nordkurier put the AfD at 36%, unchanged from the institute’s poll four weeks earlier. The center-left Social Democrats (SPD) of Premier Manuela Schwesig rose four points to 33%.

The conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) fell three points to 7%, a result that reports called the party’s worst showing in the state in decades and close to the 5% threshold needed to enter parliament. The Left Party held at 11%. The Greens were unchanged at 5% and would still be fighting to pass that barrier. The left-populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) stayed at 4% and would miss the legislature.

The poll numbers would not allow Manuela Schwesig to renew her two-party coalition with the Left Party. Together they would reach 44%. If the Greens clear 5%, she could try to stay in office at the head of a three-party alliance with the Left Party and the Greens. Other parties have ruled out governing with the AfD.

The Mecklenburg-Vorpommern vote follows the Sept. 6 election in Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD finished first with 43.8% of the vote and the CDU collapsed to 17.2%. Berlin holds its state election on the same day as Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. A fresh Infratest dimap poll there on Thursday put the Left Party at 21%, the CDU at 20% and the AfD at 18%.