German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a press conference in the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, on May 21, 2021 following the virtual 'Global Health Summit'. (MICHAEL SOHN / POOL / AFP)
Support in Germany for the two main electoral rivals, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc and the Greens party, each fell 1 percentage point in a weekly poll. The two remain neck-in-neck four months before the country’s federal election.
The Social Democrats, Merkel’s junior coalition partner since 2013, rose 1 point to 17%
Support for Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian ally, the Christian Social Union, fell to 24 percent, while the Greens dipped to 23 percent in an INSA poll for Bild am Sonntag published Sunday.
The Social Democrats, Merkel’s junior coalition partner since 2013, rose 1 point to 17 percent. The opposition Free Democrats gained 2 points to 13 percent, a level the party last reached in national polls in 2009.
ALSO READ: German Greens narrow gap to Merkel's bloc in latest Insa poll
Record support for the Greens is shaping the race to succeed Merkel, who has said she won’t seek a fifth term as chancellor after the election on Sept 26. Her exit after 16 years in office and her party’s slump in popularity is raising the possibility of the first Green-led government in Europe's biggest economy.
No margin of error was given for the May 17-21 poll of 1,405 people.
