CDU Hits Record Low 25% in Hessen as AfD Closes to Within Two Points
October 27, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The CDU of Minister-President Boris Rhein has fallen to 25 percent in the hr-Hessentrend, its lowest score ever in this series, with the AfD just two points behind at 23 percent after the CDU shed seven points since February.
Twenty-five percent. That is where the CDU now stands in the hr-Hessentrend, the recurring poll conducted for Hessen state broadcaster hr by infratest dimap, published October 27. The pollster surveyed 1,185 eligible voters between October 19 and 22, and the result is the lowest the CDU has ever recorded in this series. The AfD sits at 23 percent, a gap of two points.
The collapse has been rapid. The hr-Hessentrend recorded the CDU at 36 percent in summer 2025, close to the vote it won at the 2023 state election. Since February of this year the CDU has shed seven points in the poll. The AfD gained three in the same period, according to the hr-Hessentrend.
Ministerpräsident Boris Rhein leads a CDU-SPD coalition in Wiesbaden. The CDU has governed Hessen for more than 27 years. The current numbers offer that tenure little comfort. The SPD sits at 15 percent in the hr-Hessentrend, down one point from February. The two governing parties together reach 40 percent, short of a majority if an election were held today.
Voter dissatisfaction with the government is sharp. The hr-Hessentrend shows 54 percent of respondents are not satisfied with the work of the coalition, against 38 percent who are. That satisfaction rating has dropped nine points since February, when approval and disapproval were roughly equal.
The CDU has positioned itself as a stable barrier against the AfD. The hr-Hessentrend data does not support that framing among Hessen voters. Roughly a third of respondents told infratest dimap they think other parties should cooperate with the AfD case by case. A further quarter actively favors pursuing such cooperation. Only a good third rules out both options. Rhein has said publicly that he regards "Brandmauer" as the wrong framing. Focus.de reports that he also called for AfD members to receive the Bundestag committee chairmanships their vote share entitles them to.
On the question of banning the AfD outright, the hr-Hessentrend finds more than half of Hessians oppose the state supporting such a procedure in the Bundesrat. Among CDU supporters, 59 percent are against it. Rhein said, as reported by focus.de: "I advise fighting the AfD politically, not legally."
The CDU's problem runs deeper than vote share alone. The hr-Hessentrend asked which party has the most competence to solve pressing problems. Only 21 percent named the CDU, down six points from February and ten points from summer 2025. The AfD ranked second at 16 percent. A third of all respondents said no party at present could handle the problems they care about, up eight points from February. Mathematically, the only viable two-party coalition in Hessen today would be CDU plus AfD, the one combination Rhein continues to rule out.
More than twenty-seven years of unbroken government, and the party that has run the state still leads the party it refuses to sit with by two points.
Published October 27, 2026 · Frisian News