Tensions High: Last-Minute Poll Shows Close German Race
On the eve of election weekend in Germany, the governing coalition has a narrow lead of just 1 percent, according to a last-minute poll. The upshot? The outcome of the election is anyone's guess.
he tension is rising in Germany as the election campaign draws to a close, with an eleventh-hour poll released on Thursday giving Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and her junior coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), a lead of just 1 percent over opposition parties.
A 58 percent majority of Germans say they would like to see Merkel remain in the Chancellery, with just 32 percent preferring her center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) challenger Peer Steinbrück. But while support for her party remains at a steady 40 percent, the FDP is down to 5.5 percent, barely clearing the 5 percent hurdle required for representation in parliament, but giving the coalition combined support of 45.5 percent.
According to the "political barometer" poll commissioned by public broadcaster ZDF, the SPD, the Greens and the far-left Left Party are polling at 44.5 percent after support for the SPD rose to 27 percent and for the Left Party to 8.5 percent.
The environmentalist Green Party's popularity, meanwhile, dropped to 9 percent after a turbulent week that saw the party weakened by fresh evidence of its past pro-pedophile sympathies.
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http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/latest-poll-shows-governing-coalition-has-narrow-lead-ahead-of-election-a-923483.html#ref=nl-international
