DIn a new election poll, the AfD received 22 percent of the votes nationwide and is only four percentage points behind the Union. The AfD thus gained two points in the weekly survey by the opinion research institute Insa for “Bild am Sonntag”. In the surveys of the other large institutes, it was also 20 percent last week.
At Insa, the CDU/CSU come to 26 percent (minus 1 percentage point). There have been no changes in the other major parties: the SPD has 18 percent, the Greens 14 percent, the FDP 7 percent and the left 5 percent. That would just about secure entry into the German Bundestag.
For the survey, the opinion research institute Insa interviewed 1,266 people between July 17 and 21, 2023. The maximum error tolerance is given as plus/minus 2.9 percentage points.
Baerbock advertises difficult compromises
In view of the AfD values, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for more unity in the traffic light coalition. “In times of uncertainty like the Russian war of aggression, populist parties have it easier and easier. We must not make it any easier for them through months of public debates within the coalition, ”said the Green politician to the newspapers of the Bayern media group. At an FAZ event on Tuesday, Baerbock admitted to communication between politics and society: “The explanation slipped down a bit.” “I would say self-critically that we’ve lost something,” says Baerbock, because “a high stress factor” has been weighing on politics, especially since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and its consequences were sapping, but some discussions in the government “certainly could have been conducted a little more calmly,” said the Foreign Minister of the Bayern media group. Nevertheless, they advertise that you don’t make it too easy for yourself. Populism offers supposedly simple answers. “But our world is complex, I can’t think black and white against that,” said Baerbock. Compromises are difficult – “but they are the core of democracy, where fortunately no one hits the table and determines everything”.
In March 2021, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist. This classification, which allows the use of intelligence services, was confirmed by the Cologne Administrative Court in March 2022. The AfD appealed. The proceedings before the Higher Administrative Court in Münster have not yet been completed.
