[sebwi]

Except, the AfD is not ascendant. Polls show their support has been rather stagnant at about 10-11% for quite some time now. In the last election, they got 12.6% so they have actually lost some support since then.

There is also hardly anyone doubting that Russia would conduct such an operation. It's their modus operandi. Sympathy towards Russia also does not really rely upon sympathy towards the current government but on historical links.

Source: https://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/index.htm

[bingohbangoh]

Hence "appearing to be" and if this is working, then perhaps that's why their popularity has stagnated for so long.

Or people don't really like them.

Not taking sides, offering perspective I rarely see mentioned.