Alternative for Germany has hit an all-time high in polling amid a backlash to its conservative rivals’ promise to hugely increase debt to fund military spending.

The poll by INSA showed the AfD on 23.5 per cent, a historic high, less than four points behind the centre-Right CDU on 27 per cent.

Two other recent polls came to similar conclusions, with one putting the AfD just three points behind the CDU, on 23 per cent compared to 26 per cent.

The surge in support for the far-Right party comes after Friedrich Merz, the chancellor-in-waiting, negotiated the biggest debt package in modern German history to fund the expansion of the country’s military. The AfD has called it “the biggest deception in post-war history”.