Germany’s Greens Slump, Dimming SPD Chances of Unseating Merkel

Germany’s Greens party plummeted to a four-year low in a weekly poll, undermining efforts by Peer Steinbrueck’s Social Democrats to unseat Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The SPD-allied Greens dropped two points to 9 percent, their lowest level since March 2009, according to a Forsa poll published today in Stern magazine. That offsets a two-point gain by the SPD to 25 percent, underscoring a bounce for the party in the week after the campaign’s only televised debate.