Opinion polls predict a lose fight in German elections

The latest opinion polls predicted a neck and neck race in Germany's parliamentary election between the centre-right and centre-left parties.

The latest opinion polls predicted a neck and neck race in Germany’s parliamentary election between the centre-right and centre-left parties amid strong indications for a continuation of the present “grand coalition” between the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will find it increasingly difficult of forming a new coalition with liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) as its junior partner because the public support for a centre-right coalition dwindled dramatically in the past weeks.

Her own popularity among the voters also dropped sharply. The CDU and its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) together with the free democrats will secure a lead of only one percentage points over the combined strength of the centre-left parties,according to the polls.

Story continues below this ad

Meanwhile,Merkel’s main opponent,the present foreign minister and SPD candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier has for the first time in the campaign indicated that he is in favour of a continuation of his party’s present coalition with the CDU.

“The cooperation between two democratic parties should not be seen as a misfortune in a democracy,” he said in a television interview.

In the out-going coalition,the SPD remained “far below its possibilities” and the party wanted to implement far reaching measures to combat the financial crisis and to take the country out of the present recession,he said.

Steinmeier’s inclination for a continuation of the present coalition comes after the FDP earlier this week threw its weight fully behind the CDU and rejected a possible coalition with the SPD,the only chance for Steinmeier to become chancellor.

Story continues below this ad

The FDP’s Chairman and its main candidate Guido Westerwelle made it clear that his party has no interest to join a coalition with the SPD to create the majority needed to form a coalition government with the ecological Green party.

A coalition with the FDP and the Green party was the only chance also for the SPD to remain in power after the party leadership had ruled out the possibility of forming a government at the national level with the Left party.

Steinmeier’s comments in favour of a continuation of the present coalition comes after the SPD’s Deputy Chairman and the Finance Minister Peer Strinbrueck had spoken in favour of a continuation of the grand coalition,especially in view of the present difficult situation created by the glob al economic and financial crisis.

An opinion poll by the Stern magazine and the RTL television network published on Wednesday showed that the CDU lost two percentage points in the past week and dropped to 35 per cent.

Story continues below this ad

Another poll by the IFO economic research institute in Berlin on behalf of the German economic daily Handelsblatt predicted that the centre-right parties would trail the centre-left parties by three points as it gave only 34 per cent for the CDU and 12 points for the FDP.