Two thirds expect AfD state premier by next year, poll says

A new poll for Bild am Sonntag newspaper revealed that more than two-thirds of Germans expect one of the country's state premiers to come from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party by next year.

The survey by the Insa opinion research institute found that 68% expect an AfD state premier within the next few months.

Some 43% of respondents expect at least one state in Germany to have an AfD premier, while 25% believe the party will get to appoint the leader of several states.

The AfD is keeping up the pressure on Chancellor Friedrich Merz's center-right CDU/CSU alliance, with weekly polls regularly putting the nationalist party in front nationally.

The German states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern will hold state elections next year.

Nearly half of those polled (47%) said they support the country's far-right firewall, where all mainstream parties have ruled out working with the AfD. But 40% oppose the firewall.