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POLITICS

Far-right AfD support sinks to year-low after Brexit vote

A new poll shows that the populist AfD party has seen party support drop to its lowest level since the start of the year after the results of the EU referendum.

Far-right AfD support sinks to year-low after Brexit vote
AfD leader Frauke Petry. Photo: DPA.

A survey by research group Forsa found that the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) had sunk to eight percent in support, down from a high of 13 percent in March, while other polls had recorded 15 percent support as recently as May.

Party leaders had praised the Brexit vote when results were announced, with MEP Beatrix von Storch saying she had “cried with joy“.

Recently the party has made a number of blunders that may be putting voters off, including casting racist insults at members of the national football team during the European Championship, and splitting apart over anti-Semitic comments made by one of its politicians.

The AfD began as a Eurosceptic party in 2013, but it has more recently taken on increasingly far-right views.

The party had ridden a wave of success through state parliament elections earlier in the year on the back of criticism of Germany’s acceptance of numerous refugees, securing more than 24 percent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt.

But with the number of new asylum seekers dropping in recent months, the party’s anti-immigrant rhetoric is perhaps losing some of its resonance.

The new Forsa poll published by Stern Magazine and broadcaster RTL on Wednesday shows how these events have impacted the party’s level of popularity, with numbers dropping each day since the party’s own infighting came to a head last week.

AfD co-leader Jörg Meuthen walked out of a party parliamentary group in Baden-Württemberg last Tuesday with 12 colleagues after members failed to vote to oust a colleague who was accused of making anti-Semitic remarks.

“On Monday and Tuesday of last week, nine percent still wanted to vote for AfD,” said Forsa leader Manfred Güllner. “On Wednesday and Thursday – after the division in the Baden-Württemberg state faction – only eight percent and on Friday only seven percent.”

Forsa had polled people between July 4th and 8th.

Of all respondents surveyed, 61 percent said they were doubtful that the party would have a future given all the infighting – but just 14 percent of AfD supporters said the same.

Still, another 29 percent of all polled said they did not believe the AfD would sink into insignificance, while 81 percent of AfD supporters did not think their party would disappear off the political map.

A separate poll last week by newspaper Die Welt and broadcaster ARD also showed that the AfD was the only party to lose support, dropping three points to 12 percent, and that this was because of the Brexit vote.

Research group Infratest Dimap, which conducted the survey, explained that the Brexit vote was most likely behind this drop.

“This is likely the result of the ongoing debate on Europe, in which the EU-skeptical AfD loses support,” Infratest Dimap wrote.

Political scientist Hans Vorlaender of Dresden's Technical University also told Reuters regarding the Forsa survey that the EU referendum results had had a negative impact on the AfD’s support level.

“All of a sudden, the populists aren't looking as attractive anymore,” Vorlaender said.

Meanwhile Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and CSU sister party (Christian Social Union) received only a slight bump of one percent to reach 36 percent of respondents’ support.

The Social Democrats (SPD) gained two points on the week before to 23 percent while the Green Party was at 12 percent and the Left party had nine percent.

POLITICS

Germany’s biggest companies campaign against far right parties ahead of the EU elections

Germany's biggest companies said Tuesday they have formed an alliance to campaign against extremism ahead of key EU Parliament elections, when the far right is projected to make strong gains.

Germany's biggest companies campaign against far right parties ahead of the EU elections

The alliance of 30 companies includes blue-chip groups like BMW, BASF and Deutsche Bank, a well as family-owned businesses and start-ups.

“Exclusion, extremism and populism pose threats to Germany as a business location and to our prosperity,” said the alliance in a statement.

“In their first joint campaign, the companies are calling on their combined 1.7 million employees to take part in the upcoming European elections and engaging in numerous activities to highlight the importance of European unity for prosperity, growth and jobs,” it added.

The unusual action by the industrial giants came as latest opinion polls show the far-right AfD obtaining about 15 percent of the EU vote next month in Germany, tied in second place with the Greens after the conservative CDU-CSU alliance.

A series of recent scandals, including the arrest of a researcher working for an AfD MEP, have sent the party’s popularity sliding since the turn of the year, even though it remains just ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats.

Already struggling with severe shortages in skilled workers, many German enterprises fear gains by the far right could further erode the attractiveness of Europe’s biggest economy to migrant labour.

READ ALSO: INTERVIEW – Why racism is prompting a skilled worker exodus from eastern Germany

The alliance estimates that fast-ageing Germany currently already has 1.73 million unfilled positions, while an additional 200,000 to 400,000 workers would be necessary annually in coming years.

bmw worker

, chief executive of the Dussmann Group, noted that 68,000 people from over 100 nations work in the family business.

“For many of them, their work with us, for example in cleaning buildings or geriatric care, is their entry into the primary labour market and therefore the key to successful integration. Hate and exclusion have no place here,” he said.

Siemens Energy chief executive Christian Bruch warned that “isolationism, extremism, and xenophobia are poison for German exports and jobs here in Germany – we must therefore not give space to the fearmongers and fall for their supposedly simple solutions”.

The alliance said it is planning a social media campaign to underline the call against extremism and urged other companies to join its initiative.

READ ALSO: A fight for the youth vote – Are German politicians social media savvy enough?

It added that the campaign will continue after the EU elections, with three eastern German states to vote for regional parliaments in September.

In all three — Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony — the far-right AfD party is leading surveys.

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