Top managers see them as a threat to Germany’s prosperity: AfD leader Alice Weidel. Picture Alliance
The vast majority of top German managers see the AfD as a serious threat to prosperity in Germany.
This is the result of a survey by the Allensbach Institute among the highest-ranking managers in the country.
80 percent see the AfD as a threat to Germany as a whole, a good two thirds as harmful to the business location.
Germany’s top managers see the AfD as a major threat to Germany. This applies both to the country in general and to Germany’s economic strength and thus jobs and prosperity. This is shown by the new elite panel of the Allensbach Institute for Opinion Research commissioned by HE DOES and Capital.
Almost 80 percent of the top decision-makers from business and politics surveyed see the rise of the AfD as a serious threat to Germany. Concerns about the AfD’s growing influence have increased significantly. When the Allensbach pollsters asked for the first time in 2016 about the strengthening of the AfD, a majority of the highest-ranking decision-makers in Germany considered the concerns about the new right-wing populist party to be exaggerated. The picture had already changed in 2019. Another four years later, only 20 percent are of the opinion that fears about the AfD are overblown.
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From the panel’s perspective, the chances of the new left-wing party “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht” (BSW) becoming established are around 50:50. The respondents from politics and business hardly differ in their assessment. Most recently, the survey institute Insa expected the BSW to get 17 percent of the votes in the state elections in Thuringia that were due to take place at the beginning of September. Forsa currently sees the BSW at four percent nationwide.
AfD and the economy: Concern is growing
The current Allensbach survey shows a dramatic loss of trust among the elite in the governing traffic light coalition made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP. Only ten percent of those surveyed rate their work positively. 84 percent are disappointed with the traffic light policy. This has been a dramatic loss of reputation since the first traffic light survey in summer 2022.
Nevertheless, a large majority of almost two thirds of the top decision-makers are against early elections. Only 34 percent are in favor of this. The opposition CDU and its leader Friedrich Merz can hardly benefit from the government’s poor values and fear of the AfD among the elite. When asked who would be a better chancellor, SPD incumbent Olaf Scholz is still just ahead of Merz with 47 percent with 49 percent. Business respondents, on the other hand, see Merz with 54 percent ahead of Scholz with 41.
According to its clients, the Elite Panel is the most prominent representative survey in Europe. Interviewed for more than 30 years Allensbach twice a year, top politicians and managers as well as heads of large authorities. This time 485 people took part, including 121 managing directors, 69 owners and 127 CEOs, 19 prime ministers and ministers, 50 party and parliamentary group leaders and 26 heads of large authorities.
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