Research: More voter support for AfD despite its move further right

German voters' willingness to back the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has risen sharply, according to extremism researcher Gideon Botsch, even though in his view the party is moving increasingly further to the right.

"We assume that the willingness to vote for the AfD has risen massively and the stigma that may be associated with voting for the AfD has clearly diminished," Botsch told dpa.

The political scientist heads the Emil Julius Gumbel Research Centre for Antisemitism and Right-Wing Extremism at the Moses Mendelssohn Centre in Potsdam.

In recent polls, the AfD reached up to 29% nationwide in Germany's typical polling question of which party voters would most likely give their support if elections were held next Sunday.  Opinion polls are generally subject to uncertainties.

Clientele has grown

The AfD has, in the researcher's assessment, also gained more supporters on a tougher migration policy. "We have long assessed the AfD in Brandenburg as having a core electorate of up to a quarter of the population," Botsch said, referring to the rural eastern state that surrounds Berlin.

"Especially since around 2023, the AfD has been able to expand its clientele significantly. This is linked to national politics and the clear attempt [by the mainstream conservative parties] to outflank the AfD on the right," he said.

Brandenburg's state Premier Dietmar Woidke , a Social Democrat, had also tried to "poach voters from the AfD," the academic said. "It has not been weakened by this policy but strengthened."

The party's issues had seemingly been validated, "above all in portraying migration as the main problem area in Germany."