Poll shows Germany's AfD widening lead over Merz's conservatives

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has widened its lead over the conservative bloc of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, according to a new poll released on Saturday.

In the latest Sunday Trend poll conducted by the INSA Institute for the Bild newspaper, the party gained one point to reach 27%, while Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) alliance slipped one point to 24%.

According to the newspaper, this is the largest gap ever seen in a any of the INSA polls it commissioned.

On Friday, a poll from the German public broadcaster ZDF put the CDU/CSU bloc at 25% compared to the AfD's 26% - the first time the anti-immigrant, eurosceptic party was seen as Germany's strongest party.

The INSA poll showed the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) - the junior partner in the ruling coalition - was unchanged at 14%, followed by the Greens, also unchanged, at 13%. The Left Party gained one point to reach 11%.

According to the research group Wahlen, in a hypothetical federal election held next Sunday, the AfD would garner 26% of the votes, beating the CDU/CSU by one point.

Other research institutes also recently showed the AfD in the lead with 27%, with YouGov even reporting a gap of 4% over the conservatives.