AfD polls 2026: 28.5% average & trends in Germany

Key issues & ideology

The AfD blends nationalism, immigration restriction and euroscepticism with ordoliberal economics and climate scepticism. It demands closed borders, deportations on a large scale, an end to asylum as currently practised and the defence of German Leitkultur against multiculturalism and political Islam.

Voters asking "who is AfD?" or "what does AfD stand for?" find the party classified here as anti-immigration, eurosceptic, national conservatism — positioning that explains both its ceiling near 28.5% and where further growth must come from.

Pollster breakdown: how the 28.5% average is built

The table below shows the verified readings behind the headline (INSA, Forschungsgruppe Wahlen, Forsa, Ipsos — each row names its pollster so the source is fully transparent). Accredited houses tracked for Germany include INSA, Forsa, Infratest dimap, Forschungsgruppe Wahlen, YouGov, Allensbach — see Methodology for inclusion rules.

Ideology

The AfD blends nationalism, immigration restriction and euroscepticism with ordoliberal economics and climate scepticism. It demands closed borders, deportations on a large scale, an end to asylum as currently practised and the defence of German Leitkultur against multiculturalism and political Islam. On the EU it ranges from reformist to exit-curious, calling for the abolition of the euro, restoration of the Deutschmark or a Europe of fatherlands. Economically it favours low taxes, deregulation and Mittelstand support while opposing the green transition, combustion-engine bans and what it calls ideologically driven energy policy. The party is socially conservative on family and gender, Atlanticist-sceptic on Ukraine aid and Russia sanctions, and vocally opposed to COVID-era mandates in retrospect. Its eastern associations lean völkisch and revisionist; its western economists lean liberal. Political scientists classify the AfD as radical right to far right, noting delegations that courts have found to pursue anti-constitutional aims, a judgement the party rejects as political persecution.

Voter demographics

The AfD and the heartland is eastern Germany, where it regularly polls first: Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, regions marked by lower wages, outmigration and scepticism toward Berlin elites. Its voters are disproportionately male — the gender gap reaches double digits — middle-aged, and concentrated among skilled workers, craftsmen and lower-middle employees. Education correlates negatively: the fewer formal qualifications, the higher the AfD share, though it also attracts protest votes from disillusioned former CDU and Left supporters. Young voters, especially young men in the east, have swung sharply to the party since 2024, while pensioners and university graduates in western cities remain resistant. Non-voters are a rich recruiting ground: the AfD mobilises previous abstainers with anti-establishment appeals. Ethnic German resettlers from the former Soviet Union over-index in its support; voters with a migrant background largely reject it.