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Germany: Merkel’s party slips behind centre-left SPD in poll

Germany: Merkel's party slips behind centre-left SPD in poll | iNFOnews.ca
FILE - In this Dec. 19, 2013 photo then European Parliament President Martin Schulz, left, talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels. A new poll published Friday, Feb. 24, 2017 shows Germany's center-left Social Democrats nudging past Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc in support for the first time in more than a decade. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe, file)

BERLIN – Germany’s Social Democrats nudged past Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc for the first time in more than a decade according to a poll released Friday, as the centre-left party rides a wave of enthusiasm from their surprise nomination of a new leader.

The Infratest dimap poll for ARD television showed the SPD gaining four points compared to three weeks earlier to reach 32 per cent support while Merkel’s Union bloc fell 3 points to 31 per cent.

The SPD is enjoying a boost from the choice last month of Martin Schulz, the former president of the European Parliament, to challenge Merkel in September elections. Experts caution it’s too early to tell whether the momentum will last.

The SPD is currently Merkel’s junior coalition partner in government. Schulz hasn’t ruled out a coalition with any major party except the nationalist Alternative for Germany, or AfD, after the Sept. 24 general election.

AfD has seen its support decline in recent months amid party infighting over comments by a prominent member who suggested Germany should end its decades-long tradition of atoning for its Nazi past. The remarks by Bjoern Hoecke, who leads the party in the eastern state of Thuringia, reopened divisions among the AfD leadership about where to draw the line when it comes to sensitive issues such as the Holocaust.

A recent trip by AfD co-leader Frauke Petry to Moscow, where she met with members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s party, has also raised fears among some AfD officials that conservative voters could be alienated if the party is seen to be cozying up to Russia.

In the new poll, the support for AfD declined one point to 11 per cent, down from as high as 16 per cent last fall.

The poll also showed that the Left party’s support declined one point to 7 per cent while the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Liberal Democrats stood unchanged at 8 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.

The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 1.4-to-3.1 percentage points.

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David Rising contributed to this story.

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