Der späte AFD-Surge droht die Partei für die Deutschlands Wahlrunden zu verderben

***The Telegraph reports:***

In the home town of the man poised to become Germany’s next chancellor, there is a whiff of nervous excitement in the air.

Posters of [Friedrich Merz](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/29/germany-poll-merz-putin-permission-peacekeepers-ukraine/), the centre-Right [election](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/11/12/germany-set-to-hold-snap-election/) frontrunner, are dotted all over Brilon’s market square, where his grinning face peers down at pensioners as they shuffle through thick carpets of January snow.

[Polls suggest](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/01/10/german-federal-election-tracker-take-over-olaf-scholz/) that Mr Merz’s Christian Democratic Union [CDU] will emerge as the clear winner of next month’s election with 30 per cent of the vote, all but guaranteeing that he succeeds [Olaf Scholz ](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/olaf-scholz/)as the next chancellor of Germany.

But in Brilon, a bucolic west German market town of bone-white cottages and hunting trophies, allies of Mr Merz are cautious about the prospect of a landslide victory; they fear a last-minute surge in support for the far-Right [Alternative for Germany](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/alternative-for-germany/) [AfD] party.

“There’s an atmosphere of excitement and a certain euphoria at the moment, but it is a very cautious one because, of course, we are closely watching the polls,” Niklas Frigger, the CDU deputy mayor of Brilon, told The Telegraph.

CDU officials were a bit shocked when they saw the most recent polling data for the state of North Rhine Westphalia, where Brilon is located. The figures suggest that the AfD will double its vote share in the region, from 7.3 per cent in the last election to 15 per cent.

Mr Frigger suspects the rise in AfD voters is driven by local discontent with Mr Merz’s predecessor, [Chancellor Angela Merkel](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/angela-merkel/), who welcomed a million asylum seekers and migrants into the country in 2015.

**Read more:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/26/late-afd-surge-threatening-spoil-party-german-election/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/26/late-afd-surge-threatening-spoil-party-german-election/)