German far right and conservatives lose ground in latest polling

The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the conservative bloc have both seen a slight drop in support in an opinion poll published on Saturday, while the populist BSW and The Left party have made small gains. 

Compared with the previous week, the AfD has lost one percentage point in voter support and now stands at 29%, according to the INSA poll. 

It remains well ahead of the second-placed conservative bloc led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, which stands at 18%, down one point, in the poll which was commissioned by the tabloid newspaper Bild. 

The AfD had previously reached the 30% mark nationwide for the first time in the INSA poll.

The Left, which has been criticized for its handling of the issue of anti-Semitism, has gained one percentage point in the poll to reach 11%. 

The Alliance for Social Justice and Economic Common Sense (BSW) - until recently known as the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance after its founder, a former grande dame of The Left - has also gained one percentage point compared with the previous week (4%): With that level of support it would fail to secure a seat in the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag.

The figures for Merz's coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrats (13 %), as well as for the Greens (14%), the pro-business Free Democrats (4%) and other parties (7 %), remained unchanged compared with the previous week. 

For this representative survey, 1,206 people were interviewed between October 12 and 16. INSA placed the margin of error at plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.