Forsa survey
Can the AfD become Chancellor? The majority says no
06/27/2023, 4:27 p.m
Only 14 percent of Germans believe that the AfD has politicians who would be suitable for the office of Chancellor. Even fewer believe that an AfD chancellor would be good for Germany.
Although the AfD comes to 19 percent in the current trend barometer, only 14 percent of Germans believe that the party has a person in its ranks who would be suitable for the office of Federal Chancellor. The vast majority of 80 percent do not think so. This is the result of another survey by Forsa for the RTL and ntv trend barometer. AfD boss Alice Weidel recently said that the AfD would “of course” nominate a candidate for chancellor.
85 percent of AfD supporters believe that the party has someone who is suitable for the office of Chancellor. Among the supporters of the democratic parties it is only 5 percent. The FDP supporters are still the most convinced of the AfD’s potential personnel offer: 11 percent of them say that the AfD has politicians who would be suitable for the office of Federal Chancellor. It is 6 percent among Union supporters, 3 percent among Green Party supporters and 2 percent among SPD supporters.
Of the 14 percent who think that the AfD has someone who would be suitable for the office of Chancellor, when asked which politician of the AfD they think is capable enough, 64 percent name co-party and parliamentary group leader Alice wicker. The chancellorship also seems to have confidence in Weidel himself: “I don’t rule that out,” she said to the “star”. The Thuringian AfD boss Björn Höcke named 1 percent, 7 percent other politicians of the AfD. 32 percent cannot specifically name an AfD politician.
In addition, only 11 percent of all Germans believe that an AfD politician would be good for Germany as Chancellor. The vast majority of 81 percent thought that was bad. While 79 percent of AfD supporters believe that an AfD politician as chancellor would be “good” for Germany, only 2 percent of supporters of the democratic parties think so.
How low the support for an AfD candidate would be among the population as a whole is also shown by the results of the question about the chancellor preference, including the AfD boss Weidel. If the respondents could choose the Chancellor directly and had the choice between incumbent Olaf Scholz, CDU leader Friedrich Merz, Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Weidel, 27 percent would vote for Scholz, 24 percent for Merz, 17 percent for Habeck and only 10 percent for Weidel decide. Of the supporters of the AfD, 69 percent would choose Weidel, compared to only 2 percent of the supporters of the democratic parties.
If Habeck were not running for the Greens, but Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, only 9 percent of those eligible to vote would vote for Weidel. 25 percent would choose Scholz, 23 percent for Merz and 19 percent for Baerbock. Here, too, the large discrepancy between AfD supporters and supporters of the democratic parties is evident: 71 percent of the AfD supporters would choose Weidel, while only 2 percent of those of the democratic parties would choose Weidel.
The data was collected by the market and opinion research institute Forsa on behalf of RTL Germany on June 22 and 23, 2023. Database: 1008 respondents. Statistical error tolerance: plus/minus 3 percentage points.
More information about Forsa here.
Forsa surveys commissioned by RTL Germany.