(Washington Insider Magazine) – A front-running party in Germany’s general elections next month, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), overtook outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a nationwide survey conducted by polling group Forsa shows.
Published on Aug. 24, the poll found that the SDP has a slim 23% plurality, followed by the CDU with one percentage point behind. This is the first time since October 2006 that the SDP have led in a poll, although data from the survey shows a 2.5-percent margin of error.
The figures were released one month before Germany holds general elections on Sept. 26 when new members to the Budestag, the country’s federal legislature, will be held. If no outright majority emerges, then a coalition is formed among the elected parties who agree by consensus on a new chancellor.
Environmental party Greens polled in third place with 18%, followed by the Freedom Party (FDP) at 12%. Ten percent of respondents chose the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Left (DIE LINKE) received 6%.
The CDU is polling at its lowest levels since Berlin-based pollster Forsa was established in 1984.
Merkel is stepping down after 16 years as chancellor and after four consecutive victories in elections. Her decision has reportedly sown divisions within the CDU and its alliance with the Christian Social Union (CSU), and bolstered the popularity of SPD over the past couple of weeks.
Merkel however has insisted that the party is “fighting” when questioned by reporters about the survey’s outcome at a news conference in Berlin.
“We will work every day to get a good election result and not look every day at the polls,” she said, adding, “ultimately it is the ballots of voters in the ballot box that count,” Euronews quoted her as saying.
Currently, the lead candidate for the SPD, Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz, has a clear lead over other potential chancellors in personal polling results.
The conservative candidate, CDU chairman Armin Laschet, has been blamed by many of the political stock for the party’s drop in ratings as his personal ratings have tumbled since he was caught on camera laughing during a visit last month to a town hit by floods, Reuters reported.
An ally of Laschet, Health Minister Jens Spahn, dismissed claims on Aug. 20 that the party chairman should be replaced by a more popular candidate, such as Bavarian premier Markus Soeder, in order to secure a conservative victory.
Spahn told the newspaper Mannheimer Morgen that there are no such plans to replace Laschet with Soeder. “You will get the same answer if you asked Soeder,” he said, as reported by Reuters.
Forsa interviewed 2,504 people between Aug.17-23 and the poll ranking leaders was conducted on Aug. 18-20 and had 1,532 respondents.
