German chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) saw their lead over the main centre-left opposition party crumble, in the sharpest one-week shift in German voter sentiment in seven years, an opinion poll showed yesterday.
The CDU’s eight-point lead over the Social Democrats (SPD) fell to just two points during a week that saw the chancellor face pressure over the euro crisis and domestic turmoil, according to the Emnid poll. Support for the SPD rose three points to a five-month high of 30 per cent over the same period.
The results came against a backdrop of rising pressure on Dr Merkel – from international partners and from opposition parties at home – to take bolder steps to boost growth.
The Greens were steady at 12 per cent; the Pirates were unchanged at 11 per cent. Dr Merkel’s allies, the Free Democrats (FDP), rose one point to 6 per cent, while the Left party held steady at 6 per cent.
With about 16 months until the next election, neither an SPD/ Greens nor a CDU/ CSU/FDP combination would seem to be on track for a majority. – (Reuters)