Half of voters in the south-western German state of Baden-Württemberg would like to see other parties working with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), according to a YouGov survey commissioned by dpa.
The numbers come just weeks before residents in the prosperous state are set to head to the polls on March 8, kicking of a bumper election year that will see regional votes in five of the country’s 16 federal states.
The performance of the AfD is set to be among the developments most closely watched, after the anti-immigrant, anti-establishment party came in second in Germany’s 2025 national elections in what was its best-ever result.
The AfD currently leads polls by a wide margin in the eastern states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
But while the former East Germany has long been a stronghold for the party, the AfD has also been making gains in the west, and is currently polling in third place in Baden-Württemberg with 20%.
Germany’s mainstream parties have ruled out any cooperation with the AfD, an approach known as the “firewall” against a party that is monitored by domestic intelligence as a suspected extremist group, both at national level and in Baden-Württemberg.
But the numbers coming out of the south-western state indicate that voter support for the policy is crumbling.
Some 24% of survey respondents said parties should decide on a case-by-case basis on how to deal with the AfD, while 26% said they are in favour of other parties considering the AfD as a potential coalition partner.