Merkel’s Poll Lead Shrinks as SPD Challenger’s Popularity Surges
- Social Democrats climb 8 points to 28%, CDU-CSU slips to 34%
- SPD nominees always give party initial bump, analyst says
Martin Schulz, the Social Democrat Party (SDP) candidate for German Chancellor, center, is seen through the SPD logo while speaking during a news conference at the SPD headquarters in Berlin, Germany, on Monday, Jan. 30, 2017. Schulz, 61, who last month stepped down as president of the European Parliament to join the German political fray, was hoisted to the Social Democratic candidacy after party leader Sigmar Gabriel surprised rank-and-file members by stepping aside.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergGermany’s Social Democrats narrowed the gap with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc to the closest in more than four years, reinforcing a poll bounce after they chose outsider Martin Schulz to challenge Europe’s longest-serving leader.
Support for the SPD jumped 8 percentage points to 28 percent from a month earlier, the highest level since the last election in September 2013, according to the Infratest-Dimap for broadcaster ARD. Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc, known informally as the Union, slid 3 points to 34 percent. Half of those surveyed would support Schulz if the chancellor were elected directly, compared with 34 percent for Merkel.