Agency Report –
Leipzig, Germany – More than 70% of supporters of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in 2024 were men, according to a major study released on Wednesday.
In a survey carried out between March and June 2024, the University of Leipzig found that 70.6% of AfD supporters were male.
This represented the highest ratio for any German party, above the pro-business Free Democrats and The Left, both on 62%.
In contrast, women made up a far greater proportion of the Greens’ voter base, with only one-third of the party’s supporters (33.6%) being men.
The analysis of 2,500 German residents’ voting preferences, released less than two weeks before the country heads to the polls, found that AfD supporters were primarily of middling income or unemployed. Relatively few had a high level of education.
The Greens represented a polar opposite, with 53% of supporters being highly educated and 44% enjoying a monthly household income above €3,500 ($3,630).
The research emerged from a major study on authoritarianism carried out by the university in eastern Germany last year.
It found that 22% of AfD voters have a closed, extremist right-wing world view, compared to only 2.5% of those backing the country’s most popular parties – the conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the centre-left Social Democrats.
The AfD, which is under investigation by domestic intelligence services as a suspected extremist group, is polling in second place on more than 20% of the vote.
The study found that the main difference between CDU/CSU voters and AfD supporters was the desire for a strong authority that supporters identify with.
Some 27% of AfD backers favour the position, with only 14% of the centre-right bloc’s voters doing so.
