Germany’s Christian Democrats narrow gap with Social Democrats: Poll

BERLIN

Germany’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance is narrowing gap with the Social Democratic Party (SPD), a new poll showed on Tuesday, only days before the country’s national elections.

According to Forsa’s poll, Social Democrats maintained their lead with 25%, unchanged from last week, while the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) gained one point to 22%.

The poll put support for the environmentalist Greens at 17%, while the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) were both polled at 11%.

The socialist Left Party was polled at 6% in the same survey.

German voters will elect a new parliament on Sept. 26, and the result will determine who will succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor, since she is not running for another term.

While Social Democrats’ candidate Olaf Scholz tops popularity ratings, conservative leader Armin Laschet is still hopeful that his conservative CDU/CSU bloc will win the elections, and he will become the country’s next chancellor.

In Forsa’s survey, 25% of the respondents said they are yet to decide which party to support, or will not vote this time.

Polls show that none of the parties will get enough votes to govern alone, and the winning party’s chancellor candidate will face tough negotiations to form a coalition government.

Possible government scenarios widely discussed in media include the continuation of the current "grand coalition" between the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats, or three-way coalitions including the Greens, the liberal Free Democrats or the Left Party.