April 17, 2026, 10:57 amApril 17, 2026, 10:57 am
The right-wing populist AfD is now the strongest force in Germany for the first time in the ZDF “Politbarometer”.
If the Bundestag – the German parliament – were to be elected next Sunday, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU and CSU) would only get 25 percent (minus 1 percentage point compared to the end of March), according to the elections research group. The AfD would remain unchanged at 26 percent.
AfD leader Alice Weidel.Image: keystone
The Social Democratic SPD – the Union’s coalition partner in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government – would only reach twelve percent (minus 1), falling to its lowest value in this survey. This would mean that the coalition would no longer have a parliamentary majority.
The Greens could expect 14 percent (minus 1), the Left would increase to 11 percent (plus 1). The economically liberal FDP, which has not been listed individually in recent months due to a lack of sufficient entries, would come to three percent. For the representative survey, 1,355 eligible voters were interviewed from April 14th to 16th.
YouGov sees an even bigger AfD lead
The Elections Research Group is not the first institute to see the AfD ahead of the Union. The right-wing populists are also the strongest force in current surveys by YouGov, Insa and Forsa, but in Insa and Forsa they are slightly ahead. The lead over the Union is strongest on YouGov: In the Sunday question, the AfD got 27 percent (plus 1 percentage point compared to the previous month), while the CDU/CSU slipped by three percentage points to 23 percent.
Despite protests, the AfD is on the rise.Image: keystone
Election surveys are generally subject to uncertainty. Among other things, weakening party ties and increasingly short-term voting decisions make it more difficult for opinion research institutes to weight the data collected. In principle, surveys only reflect the opinion at the time of the survey and are not predictions of possible election outcomes.
Dissatisfaction with the government is growing
At the same time, satisfaction with the government and chancellor in the ZDF “Politbarometer” has fallen to a record low. After 34 percent at the end of March, only 27 percent of respondents are now overall satisfied with the government’s work. 63 percent give her a bad reference. Only 18 percent consider the cooperation within the coalition to be good, while 73 percent see it as bad.
Dissatisfaction with the work of Merz (CDU) has also continued to increase. 65 percent said he did a bad job (end of March: 57), only 30 percent said he did a good job (March: 38), including the majority of CDU/CSU supporters. There is also a lot of criticism of Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD), whose performance is rated as good by 29 percent and bad by 58 percent, as well as Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU), who is only doing a good job for 19 percent (poor: 64 percent). (dab/sda/dpa)