Berlin, Sept. 21, (dpa/GNA) – Opinion polls ahead of the German elections on Sunday are continuing to shift slowly in favour of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc, although it still remains behind the Social Democrats (SPD).
The latest poll by the Forsa institute on Tuesday shows Merkel’s alliance of Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) up one percentage point at 22 per cent, three points behind the SPD and their candidate for chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
The margin between the two is half of what it was two weeks ago, and is now close to the Forsa poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
Other polls have indicated similar gains for the CDU/CSU in the past week.
Finance Minister Scholz has brought his party from being largely written-off at the start of the campaign to top of the polls, making him the current front-runner for the chancellorship, possibly at the head of a three-way, left-leaning coalition.
It is a remarkable comeback for the SPD, which saw its approval rating plummet during its time in government as a junior coalition partner to Merkel’s CDU/CSU.
But Scholz will have to hold off the advance of his main rival, the CDU’s Armin Laschet, for another few days.
Laschet, who has failed to impress voters during the campaign, is hoping to gain more ground in the last stretch with the help of Merkel herself, who is due to attend a rally with him later on Tuesday.
GNA