AfD leads polls ahead of elections in Mecklenburg — Anadolu Agency
In Germany, ahead of elections to the parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is leading in the polls. According to a new Insa survey, AfD has 37% support, while the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) has 35%. Anadolu Agency reports.
AfD's result in the poll is more than double its performance in the 2021 state election, when the party won 16.7% of the vote. Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is supported by 7% of respondents, according to Insa — the party's lowest figure in this state since German reunification.
Campaign and programs
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is located on the Baltic Sea coast, and its capital is Schwerin. The SPD has governed the state since 1998, changing coalition partners. Minister-President Manuela Schwesig has held office since 2017. In the 2021 election, her party received 39.6% of the vote and formed a coalition with the Left Party.
Schwesig has focused her campaign on preventing an AfD victory. She said that a strong SPD result would make it possible to form a democratic coalition, while an AfD victory would mean extremists coming to power. AfD candidate for head of the state government Leif-Erik Holm, a member of the federal parliament since 2017, criticizes the current government's socioeconomic policies and calls for a change of government after 28 years of SPD rule.
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AfD's election program provides for a tougher approach to migration, including stopping the admission and “remigration” of Syrian refugees. The party also advocates establishing a state border and deportation police force, additional detention centers for people awaiting removal, a return to nuclear energy, and the abolition of Germany's carbon tax.
Possible coalitions
According to the poll, the Left Party with 10% and the CDU with 7% could also enter the Landtag. The Greens are near the five-percent electoral threshold, while the left-wing populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) does not clear it in the latest Insa poll.
If the Greens enter parliament, a coalition of the SPD, the Left Party and the Greens could win a majority. At the same time, the SPD, CDU, Greens and Left Party say they will not form a coalition with the AfD. BSW allows for negotiations but insists on a candidate for minister-president who is independent of the parties.
The vote will take place two weeks after AfD won a record 43.8% of the vote in elections in the neighboring state of Saxony-Anhalt. The elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are also seen in Berlin as an indicator of political sentiment in the country and support for the CDU amid the party's losses in eastern regions.
