SPD closing gap with Merkel’s conservatives
berlin — Support for Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) nudged up to 32 per cent, one percentage point behind Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, over the past week, according to a poll published on Wednesday.
The centre-left SPD, currently the junior partner in Merkel’s ruling coalition, has seen its poll ratings soar since nominating former European Parliament president Martin Schulz as its candidate for chancellor in the September 24 federal election.
The weekly poll, conducted by the Forsa institute for Stern magazine, showed support for Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party (CSU) stable at 33 per cent. The support for the SPD was up one percentage point on the week.
The institute put the poll’s margin of error at 2.5 percentage points, meaning the CDU/ CSU bloc and the SPD are in a neck-and-neck race.
Both Merkel, who will seek a fourth term as chancellor, and Schulz are hoping to end their parties’ ‘grand coalition’ and to form a new government with smaller allies.
The Forsa poll, which canvassed the views of some 2,500 voters, showed the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party down one percentage point at 8 per cent, while support for the Greens party and the Left party were unchanged at 8 percent and 7 per cent, respectively.
The business-friendly Free Democratic Party lost one percentage point to 6 per cent, just above the 5 per cent threshold needed to take seats in parliament. —