The German election campaign heats up as Merkel’s conservatives slide

BERLIN, Aug. 29 (Reuters) – The campaign over who will replace German Chancellor Angela Merkel warmed up on Sunday after a new opinion poll showed that center-left Social Democrats (SPDs) opened up a bigger advantage over conservatives. Merkel.

Support for the SPD has risen two points since last week to 24%, its highest result in four years, according to an INSA survey conducted in the newspaper Bild am Sonntag. The Conservatives lost a point to 21%, the lowest ever surveyed.

Germany goes to the polls on September 26, when Merkel leaves the post of chancellor after 16 years in office and four consecutive victories in the national elections. Merkel’s imminent departure has weakened support for her conservative alliance.

It was the second poll in the last week that the SPD advanced. Support for Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and her Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), has been steadily declining in recent weeks.

The bloc’s candidate for chancellor, CDU president Armin Laschet, has been on fire since he was caught on camera laughing during a visit last month to a city affected by the floods.

In a hypothetical direct vote for the chancellor, the INSA poll showed that the SPD candidate, the Minister of Finance, Olaf Scholz, would get 31% of the vote, compared to only 10% of Laschet and the 14% of the Greens candidate, Annalena Baerbock.

The three candidates will have to hold a televised debate on Sunday evening.

Despite the SPD’s leadership in the polls, it would still have to team up with two other parties to govern, which sparked a discussion about which possible coalition partners would be acceptable.

Scholz declined to rule out associating with the far-left Linke in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, although he said any German government must commit to being a member of NATO.

The Linke, which currently polls around 6%, is calling for the abolition of NATO in its election manifesto.

Meanwhile, Greens candidate Baerbock distanced himself from Linke as a possible partner.

“The Linke has just been ruled out, as it was not even willing to support the Bundeswehr in rescuing German nationals and local forces from Afghanistan,” Baerbock told Funke media group newspapers.

Laschet questioned the commitment of the SPD and the Greens to support the German army, and said at an event on Saturday that they had blocked measures in the past to protect soldiers.

Report by Emma Thomasson; Edited by Jan Harvey

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