Poll: Support for German far-right party still slipping

Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) continues to gradually lose support among the public according to the latest poll, as it deals with a series of setbacks.

In a survey published on Tuesday by the Insa Institute for the Bild newspaper, 15.5% of respondents said they would vote for the AfD if federal elections were held this week.

This would put the AfD behind Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats, which is in second place with 16%.

The conservative CDU/CSU bloc - two parties that effectively act as one a national level - remains by far the strongest force with 30.5%.

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The party's second candidate in the European elections, Petr Bystron, has also withdrawn from the campaign after his Berlin home was searched by police.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.

Insa said that the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats - Scholz's two coalition patners - are at 12% and 5% respectively.

The hard-left Die Linke comes in at 3.5%.

Some 7.5% of respondents say they would vote for the newly formed Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).

The institute surveyed 2,002 citizens between May 31 and June 3.