German Far-Right Party Ahead in East Before Elections, Bild Says

(Bloomberg) -- Germany’s far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is ahead in the eastern states of Saxony and Brandenburg four weeks before state elections, Germany’s Bild reported Sunday.

The AfD is currently polling at 23%, ahead of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, which is at 22%, according to a poll carried out by Bild. Die Linke is in third place at 14% while the Greens are at 13%.

In the west of the country, the AfD is polling in fourth position at 12%. The CDU has 27%, the Greens 25% and SPD 13% in the Kantar Emnid poll of 1,419 conducted from July 25-31.

The former communist east that saw massive right-wing protests last year is now back in focus as voters in three states go to the polls this fall. In Saxony and Brandenburg, Merkel’s Christian Democrats and their junior partner, the Social Democrats, may lose for the first time since reunification in 1990 -– to the upstart AfD. That could not only implode her fragile coalition but upend a political landscape dominated by two parties since World War II.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Syed in London at ssyed35@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dinesh Nair at dnair5@bloomberg.net, Sara Marley, Brian Wingfield

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