After far-right demos, AfD overtakes Social Democrats
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has overtaken the Center-Left Social Democrats (SPD), a poll showed on Tuesday, days after some of the most violent protests by radical right-wingers the country has seen in decades.
Some 6,000 supporters of the AfD and anti-Islam PEGIDA joined protests in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Saturday following other demonstrations last week after a man was stabbed to death there on August 26. Two immigrants were arrested for the killing.
An INSA poll on Tuesday put the AfD up half a percentage point at 17%, with the SPD, who share power with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, slipping by the same amount to 16%. Merkel’s conservative bloc was on 28.5%.
Germany’s next electoral test comes on October 14 when Merkel’s Bavarian allies face a major challenge from the AfD for state government.
The AfD, the third-biggest party in last year’s election and main opposition, seized on the killing of a 35-year old German in Chemnitz and the subsequent arrests of a Syrian and Iraqi to ramp up criticism of Merkel’s open-door asylum policy.
Prosecutors said on Tuesday they are looking for a third suspect and Der Spiegel reported there was some doubt about the identity of two already under arrest.
Pictures showed skinheads at last week’s protests chasing migrants through the streets, hurling bottles and fireworks and some even making the Hitler salute, illegal in Germany.
Calls have mounted for the domestic intelligence agency to place the AfD under surveillance.
On Monday, the states of Lower Saxony and Bremen said their regional security services, tasked with policing unconstitutional activity, had placed their respective regional chapters of Young Alternative, the largest opposition party’s youth wing, under surveillance because of its suspected ties.
But with pressure from politicians and activists to extend that surveillance to the national party, conservative Chancellor Merkel declined to enter the fray directly, saying it was for the security services themselves to decide whom to monitor.
“These aren’t political decisions, but decisions that are based on facts,” she told reporters after a summit of business leaders and labor unions, attended also by Olaf Scholz, her Social Democrat finance minister.
Scholz said he agreed on the principle, but added at the same news conference that the clashes in Chemnitz gave clear cause for a renewed look at whether the AfD, which entered parliament for the first time last year, should be monitored.
Germany’s constitution contains strict safeguards against extremism, allowing for the close monitoring and even the proscribing of extremist parties.
Intelligence agencies monitor the far Left and far Right as well as Islamists suspected of planning attacks.
Memories of Nazi and Communist oppression have made Germans very cautious about state surveillance, but a poll on Monday found that 57% agreed that the AfD should be monitored.
“The country has clearly gone mad,” said Joerg Meuthen, the AfD’s chairman, saying that far-left rock bands should be monitored for extremist tendencies.
A group of left-leaning rock groups gave a free concert “against xenophobia” in Chemnitz on Monday evening, inadvertently highlighting splits between Germany’s mainstream left and right.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, formally politically neutral but originally a Social Democrat, shared the invitation to the concert on his Facebook page, drawing criticism from Merkel’s party.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, general secretary of Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said one of the bands, named “Fine Cream Fish Fillet,” called for violence against the police in some of its lyrics. Earlier presidents “would not have supported the band so uncritically,” she said.
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and his Bavarian CSU party say the conditions have not been met to monitor the AfD as a whole, but they will keep an eye on developments and individuals.