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This, say observers, is proof of the greatest fear among liberal politicians - citizens pushed into the embrace of the far-right and its intolerant attitudes which brought Hitler to power in the 1930's.

The Alternative for Germany (AFD) party leader Frauke Petry caused a storm a week ago when she advocated the right of border police to gun down migrants. But her comments have struck a nerve in a country being pushed to the brink by the crisis with 29 percent of respondents in a weekend poll backing her extremist plan.

Moroccan Police look at immigrants trying to jump the six-meter-high fence in Ceuta, Spanish enclave on the north of Africa, 09 December 2016.

Every fourth German considers it justified to "prevent unarmed refugees at gunpoint to cross the border" according to the survey by the Research Institute YouGov on Saturday.

Border police should be able if need be to have recourse to their firearms

The poll was triggered by Petry's comments of a week ago when she incensed the ruling political elite by declaring: "We need efficient controls to prevent so many unregistered asylum-seekers keeping on entering via Austria.

"Border police should be able if need be to have recourse to their firearms -- as laid down by law.No policeman wants to fire on a refugee and I don't want that either. But as a last resort there should be recourse to firearms."

But while a considerable number of voters agreed with her gunfire policy, only 13 percent of those quizzed believed that her party should not be spied on by intelligence spooks - something called for by SPD party chief and vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel. Thirty two percent of respondents considered this a good idea.

The poll came ahead of vital regional elections in Germany on March 13 in the states of Baden-Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz and Saxony-Anhalt. The AFD - enjoying record highs of 12 percent support among voters - are expected to gain big and Angela Merkel's CDU conservatives are awaiting a drubbing over her open-door policies which have seen over a million refugees pour into the country in the past year.

Although Chancellor Merkel sticks to her mantra that "we can do this" the reality on the ground for those tasked to process all the migrants is chaos. Authorities are struggling to process hundreds of thousands of asylum applications, according to the head of the country's refugee office.

"Between 670,000 and 770,000 people who arrived in Germany in 2015 still had not received the final decision on their asylum applications and a majority have not even been able to file their applications," said Frank-Jürgen Weise, who heads the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.

"It's an unacceptable situation. It's serious and unacceptable for people to have to wait so long. It's bad for the prospects of integration and also bad for the job market when it takes so long."