BERLIN

The support for the far-right AfD is rising ahead of Sunday’s widely-watched elections in the eastern German state of Brandenburg.

According to the latest opinion polls, the anti-immigrant AfD is on track to come in first place, while Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) are expected to come in second, followed by the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU).

In Tuesday’s poll by Insa institute, the far-right AfD was seen reaching as much as 28%, almost five percentage points higher than its score in the previous elections in 2019.

Scholz’s Social Democrats were predicted to get their worst-ever result in Brandenburg, but they were still expected to come in second with 25% of the vote.

Their coalition partners, the Greens and the liberal FDP, were bracing for huge losses and seen below the 5% threshold necessary to enter the state parliament.

The main opposition Christian Democrats were expected to garner about 16% of the vote, with a slight increase compared to previous elections, and become the third largest group in the state parliament.

The newly formed left-wing populist party, Bundnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), was seen winning around 14%, which could give the party a “king-maker” role after the elections in forming a stable coalition government in Brandenburg.

All major parties running in the election ruled out forming a coalition government with the far-right AfD, which has long been monitored by the security services for its anti-democratic tendencies.