Alternative for Germany (AfD) has tripled its support in local elections in the country’s most populous state, a poll seen as the first electoral test for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition government.
Friedrich Merz’s centre-right CDU held its ground as the strongest party in Sunday’s municipal elections. But the AfD, co-led by Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, made notable gains, winning 14.5 per cent of the vote compared with just 1.5 per cent in 2020.
The surge follows AfD’s record performance in February’s federal elections, when the party became the second-largest force in parliament with 21 per cent of the national vote – driven largely by overwhelming support in Germany’s former communist east.
Yet the latest results highlight that AfD’s appeal is no longer confined to the east. In recent years, the party has drawn increasing support in western regions, such as the Ruhr, an area in North Rhine-Westphalia marked by high immigration and the economic scars of deindustrialization.
