Germany's far left and right see membership surge

The waning popularity of Germany's coalition government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz is delivering a windfall of new members to the Left Party and far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), as well as the Greens.

The coalition parties – Merz' conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) – saw only minimal gains or declines, according to party data obtained this week by dpa.

The far-left more than doubled its membership over the course of last year to reach more than 123,000 members by the end of 2025.

In second place is the AfD, which, according to treasurer Carsten Hütter, had 73,108 members on January 1. The party did not provide an exact comparison figure for the previous year but said membership had been around 51,000, suggesting growth of more than 43%.

The Greens, who have been on an upward trend for a decade, reported almost 184,000 members at the turn of the year - an increase of 18.3% over 2024.

Merz's CDU is the only governing party to report growth, with a 1.5% increase in 2025 over the previous year to total 132,000 members, according to a party spokesperson in Munich.

Overall, the coalition is struggling to maintain its ground in the face of economic problems, a heated anti-immigration debate and a host of international crises, including the wars in Iran and Ukraine and tensions with the US under President Donald Trump.   

In a December poll conducted by INSA for Germany's Bild newspaper, 63% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the government and 62% disapproved of Merz himself.