Support for populist AfD surges in Germany after CDU betrayals of voters | Eastern NC Now

Polls are showing buyers remorse in Germany, after the likely new chancellor, Friedrich Merz has proposed doing the exact opposite of every one of his CDU party's major campaign promises in his deal making with the left of center Social Democrats.  He has already put one of those in place by calling the lame duck Bundestag back into session to pass a massive deficit spending bill, thwarting the Constitution's debt brake by taking most it technically off-budget.  It is being called the biggest deception in German history.  In the just elected Bundestag, he would not have had the votes to do that.

Polling is showing the populist nationalist Alternativ fur Deutschland (AfD) which ran a strong second in the recent election, continuing to rise in popularlity, hitting its highest numbers ever, while support for Merz' CDU tanks.  The Social Democrats are continuing to decline even though their recent election result was already their worst since 1887 when the first Kaiser Wilhelm was still on the throne of imperial Germany.

One result is that party officials and elected CDU politicians are leaving the party in droves.  In at least one case, the entire local CDU leadership resigned.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/25/afd-hit-all-time-high-polls-after-merzs-biggest-deception/

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/merz-betrayal-cdu-party-exodus/

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/german-coalition-talks-afd-merz-cdu-spd/