Far right still leading Social Democrats ahead of German state poll

Just over a week before a crucial state election in Brandenburg, the east German state surrounding Berlin, polls are indicating that Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) are within a few percentage points of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

A poll released on Friday by public broadcaster ZDF shows the AfD on 29%, ahead of the SPD on 26%.

If the AfD wins on September 22, it would be only the second time they have achieved this in a state election since they were founded. Earlier this month, they won their first state election in Thuringia.

In a poll published on Thursday by the other main public broadcaster, ARD, the margin between the two parties was narrower. There, the SPD were also on 26%, but just one percentage point behind the AfD with 27%.

According to the ZDF poll, the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) are in third place with 15%.

The CDU is currently in coalition with the SPD and the Greens in Brandenburg, which has an SPD premier.

Mainstream German political parties refuse to work with the AfD, leading to a situation where otherwise political rivals join together to form coalitions.

The head of the CDU-led government in the neighbouring state of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, on Friday took the unusual step of endorsing Brandenburg's SPD premier Dietmar Woidke.

"It is important that the leading political force in this country is a democratic party," Kretschmer said. "We have to stick together."

Domestic intelligence services in Brandenburg categorize the AfD in the state as a suspected right-wing extremist group.

Some 1,060 eligible voters in Brandenburg were questioned for the ZDF survey, between September 10-12.

The insurgent Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, a new party which combines left-wing social policy with a hardline stance on migration, is close behind on 14%.

Some 73% of those surveyed stated that they had made up their mind about whom to vote for, while the other 27% were still unsure.