The AfD has been struggling with significant image problems for weeks. An employee of their top candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, is said to have worked as a spy for China and is in custody. There are also reports of dubious financial payments from Russian sources to AfD politicians. Only a little more than a third of Germans consider these to be isolated cases. However, 54 percent are of the opinion that AfD politicians are generally less serious than politicians from other parties.

As expected, there are big differences depending on party preference. 86 percent of AfD supporters consider the events that have become known to be isolated cases. Two thirds of the supporters of the democratic parties, however, see a fundamental problem with the AfD and believe that its politicians are generally less serious than politicians from other parties. The biggest skeptics are the supporters of the Greens: 78 percent of them generally consider AfD politicians to be dubious - followed by voters of the SPD (69 percent), the Union (55 percent) and the FDP (52 percent).

The data was collected by the market and opinion research institute forsa for RTL Group Germany on April 24th and 25th, 2024. Database: 1000 respondents. Statistical margin of error: /- 3 percentage points

The exact question was: "In recent weeks there have been reports of money payments from Russian sources to AfD politicians and spying activities for China by AfD employees. In your opinion, are these isolated cases or are AfD politicians generally less serious than politicians from other parties? "