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, 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 mai…