Germany’s right-wing, nationalist party Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) has overtaken Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their coalition partners, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Eastern Germany ahead of key regional elections.
The AfD, which was founded in 2013, is strongly opposed to Merkel’s open borders policies and also has a Eurosceptic outlook.
Despite the German media’s almost uniform opposition to the anti-establishment AfD, atrocities and crime attributed to migrants to Germany from the Third World have led to a swell in support for the party.
In reaction media outlets in Germany have stepped up their attacks and hit pieces on the party and German security services have placed the youth wing of AfD under surveillance.
Now new polls in the country ahead of regional elections show that support for the establishment parties is at a record low, in the east of the country which endured over 40 years of communist tyranny.
However, support for the AfD remains lower in more affluent Western Germany which shows that the political and social outlook in the country remains starkly divided 30 years after reunification.
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