German Greens Surge In Poll To Rival Merkel's CDU

[reorg]

Source: Dow Jones Newswires

By Bernd Radowitz, Dow Jones Newswires
Apr 6, 2011 | 2:46PM

BERLIN -(Dow Jones)- Concern about atomic power continued to boost Germany's opposition Green party, which together with the Social Democrats, or SPD, would supplant Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right government if elections were held today, an opinion poll published Wednesday showed.

The Greens would become the second-strongest party and for the first time could claim the post of Germany's chancellor, according to a poll published by the Forsa survey institute for Stern magazine. General elections are still two years away, though.

Jumping seven percentage points from a survey a week earlier, the Greens now would garner 28% of votes, becoming the biggest opposition party before the SPD, which is seen at 23%, according to the poll. The two main opposition parties together would have a 51% majority.

Currently, the CDU, FDP and SPD are spending most of their time debating how to phase out nuclear power, but the issue is seen as a Green core theme, leaving the other parties without credibility, Forsa head Manfred Guellner is quoted as saying in a release by Stern magazine.

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201104060403dowjonesdjonline000304&title=german-greens-surge-in-poll-to-rival-merkels-cdu

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(also in WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704101604576246303657017690.html)

After winning the election in Baden-Württemberg, the Greens jumped another 7 percent in the polls within a week.

http://www.stern.de/politik/deutschland/stern-rtl-wahltrend-die-fdp-verkuemmert-zur-splitterpartei-1671504-infographic.html