Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD), a populist right-wing political party, has surpassed Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a traditional conservative party, in a recent popularity poll.

According to the survey conducted by the Forsa Institute for Social Research and Statistical Analysis, AfD received 26% support, while Merz’s CDU only managed 24%, marking its lowest approval since the 2021 election, as reported by the poll data.

This comes as 67% of Germans say they are dissatisfied with Merz’s job after his first 100 days in office, the poll said. He was elected in May.

Alternative for Germany leader Alice Weidel.  (Soren Stache – Pool/Getty Images)

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio decried the decision, calling it “tyranny in disguise.”

“Germany just granted its intelligence agency enhanced capabilities to monitor the opposition,” Rubio commented on X. “This is not democracy—it’s disguised tyranny. The real extremism comes not from the popular AfD—which placed second in the recent poll—but from the government’s risky open border immigration policies, which the AfD opposes. Germany should reconsider its direction.”

The party was founded in 2013 as an anti-euro movement, but since then has taken a hard-right stance on issues like immigration and Islam.

Elon Musk waves speaks live via a video transmission during a speech by Alice Weidel last year.  (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Across Europe, other far-right groups are gaining in popularity, including Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and the National Rally party in France.