BERLIN (AP) – Last summer the nationalist Alternative for Germany party was surging in the polls, on course to become the third-strongest political force in the country at the next general election.
But with six months to go before Germans head to the ballot box, the party’s luster has faded.
Leadership infighting, a secretive trip to Moscow and a new challenger from the left have sapped its support.
Add to that a growing wariness among voters about Trump-style politics since the new U.S. president’s inauguration in January, and AfD – as it is known in Germany – is feeling the pinch.
A regular poll of German voters, conducted at least once a month since 2000, puts AfD’s support at 11 percent – down from 16 percent last summer, and other polls have put support as low as 8 percent. The Deutschlandtrend survey for public broadcaster ARD has a margin of error of up to 3.1 percent.