Germany’s far-right AfD keeps second place in polls despite scandals

Berlin, May 26 (IANS/DPA) Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has maintained its second place in polls ahead of June’s European Parliament elections despite a wave of recent scandals that have threatened to damage the party’s hopes.

An online survey carried out by the INSA polling institute for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper had the AfD at 17 per cent, unchanged from April.Germany’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance was top at 30 per cent, with the governing Social Democratic Party (SDP) at 14 per cent and its coalition partners The Greens and the Free Democratic Party at 13 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively.The AfD has been rocked by controversies in recent weeks, with the party’s lead candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, being banned from making public statements after saying that not all members of the Nazi SS paramilitary force were criminals.The party’s second candidate in the European elections, Petr Bystron, has also withdrawn from the campaign after his Berlin home was searched by police last week. Bystron is under investigation for money laundering and bribery and has links to pro-Russian networks.In addition, German police arrested Krah’s former assistant, Jian Guo, on suspicion of espionage last month. Krah fired him following allegations that the parliamentary aide was spying for China.While the spate of negative headlines is yet to harm the AfD in German polls, it has had consequences for the party on the European level.In a blow ahead of the European Parliament elections, the AfD was ejected this week from the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, an alliance of populist right-wing parties in the parliament.–IANS/DPAsd/svn