Insa poll: AfD at 35 percent in Saxony: ahead of CDU

A year before the state elections in Saxony, the AfD is in first place in the state, according to an Insa poll - clearly ahead of Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer's CDU. The AfD comes in at 35 percent, the "Leipziger Volkszeitung" (LVZ) reported Thursday. The CDU stands at 29 percent. The LVZ had commissioned the survey together with the "Freie Presse" and the "Sächsische Zeitung".

Nine percent of respondents would vote for the Left, seven percent for the SPD, six percent for the Greens and five percent for the FDP. For a continuation of the current ruling coalition of CDU, SPD and Greens would probably not be enough. In Saxony, the next state election is scheduled for Sept. 1, 2024.

With the current state government, 53 percent - and thus a majority of respondents - expressed dissatisfaction. 41 percent expressed satisfaction, while six percent did not specify. By contrast, 51 percent are satisfied with Prime Minister Kretschmer, according to the Insa survey.

Election polls are generally always afflicted with uncertainties. Among other things, weakening party ties and increasingly short-term election decisions make it difficult for opinion research institutes to weight the data collected. Insa states a statistical margin of error of plus/minus 2.2 percentage points. In principle, polls reflect only the opinion at the time of the survey and are not forecasts on the election outcome.