According to state broadcaster ARD, the right-wing party is predicted to secure 20.5% of the vote, with the Christian-Democrats coming out on top with 28.5%
The right-wing Alternative for Germany party (AFD) is projected to take second place in the country’s snap elections on Sunday, with 20.5% of the vote, an exit poll published by state broadcaster ARD indicates. The Christian-Democrat CDU/CSU party is predicted to emerge victorious with over 28%, according to the broadcaster’s research.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social-Democratic Party is expected to secure 16.4% – if confirmed, its worst showing since 1949. According to the Financial Times, the party is poised for “its worst defeat since 1887.” The SPD’s partners in the now defunct traffic-light coalition, the Greens, were backed by 12% of the voters and the Free Democratic Party by a mere 4.7%, according to ARD’s exit poll. The Left Party can presumably count on 8.6% of the vote, with the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, which was created last January, debuting with 4.9%, the broadcaster reports.
Compared to the 2021 general elections, the AFD will apparently be the biggest winner, projected to improve its performance by 9.1%. The CDU has risen by 4.9%, according to the exit poll. By contrast, Scholz’s Social Democrats are presumably down by 9.7%, the Greens by 1.2%, with the FDP projected to bleed 6.5%.
Surveys in recent months have consistently shown that the ruling traffic light coalition was not widely supported by the population.
According to ARD, the AFD could get 150 out of 630 seats in the German parliament, with the CDU/CSU likely to claim 208.
Addressing her supporters late on Sunday, AFD’s co-leader and chancellor candidate, Alice Weidel, proclaimed: “We have scored a historic result. We were never stronger on the federal level. We have become the second strongest force.”
She pointed out that despite efforts to “halve” its results, the AFD has emerged as the only party that “doubled its result” compared to the previous election. The politician also stressed that “our hand will always be extended for a coalition government, to execute the will of the people, the will of Germany.”
Weidel warned the Christian Democrats against betraying their own voters by entering into a coalition with left-leaning parties. The AFD chancellor candidate predicted that if this happens, “the next elections will come sooner than you think, and then we will overtake the CDU as the strongest force. This is our objective.”
Scholz acknowledged that “this is a bitter election result for the Social-Democratic Party. This is also an election defeat.” He accepted responsibility for the party’s poor showing, and congratulated the CDU/CSU and its chairman Friedrich Merz, who will likely get to form a new government.
Scholz also lamented the AFD’s strong result, saying that this “should be something that we will never ever accept.” The SPD leader spoke in favor of retaining the so-called Brandmauer (firewall) principle of German politics, whereby no party enters into a coalition with the right-wing.
A triumphant Merz, in turn, named the establishment of a well-functioning government in short order as his first priority.
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