The final poll before the state election in Brandenburg shows the race on a knife edge, as the right-wing anti-establishment Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) hopes to cause a major upset by beating Germany’s governing Social Democrats (SPD) in one of their heartlands.
Polling by the ZDF Politbarometer Extra put the AfD on 28%, one point ahead of the SPD. Meanwhile, the opposition centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) are fighting for third place with the new left-wing nationalist party Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW). The poll puts them on 14% and 13% respectively. All other parties are below the 5% threshold required to enter the Brandenburg parliament.
The poll comes amid growing panic in the German establishment and its media allies. Politico suggests that Chancellor Olaf Scholz could be ousted if his party loses yet another state election to what it calls the “far right.” It says that several leading figures in the SPD have told them a loss in Brandenburg “could lead to the collapse” of the country’s governing ‘traffic light’ coalition of the SPD, the Greens and the liberal FDP. Both the Greens and the FDP could fail to win enough votes to win any seats in Brandenburg.
The Brandenburg election comes just weeks after the AfD won its first ever regional election in the state of Thuringia with 32,8% of the vote, beating the SPD into third place. The AfD also finished a close second in Saxony behind the establishment CDU.
