Angela Merkel on track to fourth term
WISMAR,GERMANY: GermanChancellor Angela Merkel is on track to win a fourth term in Sunday’s national election despite a dip in support for her conservatives, a pollshowed,andsheshruggedoff calls to quit from far-right hecklers.
Merkel has been repeatedly booed during the election campaign,particularlyinGermany’s formerlyCommunisteast,where support is strongest for the antiimmigrationAlternativeforGermany (AfD), set to enter parliament for the first time.
An opinion poll published on Tuesday by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily put the AfD on 10%, up two points since theendofAugust,whileMerkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and theirBavarianCSUalliesslipped two points to 36.5%.
However, the CDU/CSU remain far ahead of the centreleft Social Democrats, which were also down two points on 22%, according to the poll conducted by Allensbach for the FAZ,whilethebusiness-friendly FreeDemocratsedgedupto11%.
“People who whistle and heckle contribute little,” Merkel told a CDU rally in the northeastern porttownofWismar,notfarfrom where she grew up.
Merkel was unperturbed when a man shouted “Traitor to the fatherland”, while far-right protestors carried posters reading“Merkelmustgo!”