One week before millions of Europeans are set to elect a new parliament, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party continues to poll in second place despite a serious of recent scandals, according to a new survey.
If the European elections were held this Sunday, the party would receive 16% of the votes, ahead of the Social Democrats (SPD) of Chancellor Olaf Scholz who are polling at 14%, according to a survey conducted by the Insa opinion research institute on behalf of the Bild am Sonntag tabloid.
The AfD's result was down 1% from 17% in a similar survey conducted by Insa a week ago.
Germany's conservative CDU/CSU alliance was top at 29%, with the SPD's coalition partners The Greens and the pro-business Free Democratic Party at 13% and 4% respectively.
For their latest survey, Insa polled 1,001 people between May 30 and May 31.
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The party's second candidate in the European elections, Petr Bystron, has also withdrawn from the campaign after his Berlin home was searched by police. 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 in April. 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.
The AfD was ejected last week from the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, an alliance of populist right-wing parties in the parliament.
Citizens from 27 EU member states are set to elect a new European Parliament from June 6 to 9. Voting kicks off in the Netherlands on Thursday, though most countries will hold the polls on Sunday.
