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Germany: Greens overtake Merkel's conservatives

2021-04-26T17:32:33.118Z


German environmentalists are on the rise: following the appointment of their leader for the September legislative elections, they overtake Angela Merkel's conservatives in voting intentions, according to a poll published on Sunday. This is the second poll in a row this week to show such a turnaround which, if confirmed at the polls, would be unprecedented in German political history. Forty-one yea


German environmentalists are on the rise: following the appointment of their leader for the September legislative elections, they overtake Angela Merkel's conservatives in voting intentions, according to a poll published on Sunday.

This is the second poll in a row this week to show such a turnaround which, if confirmed at the polls, would be unprecedented in German political history.

Forty-one years after their creation in 1980, in such a case it would open the doors of the Chancellery to the “Grünen”, a prospect that seemed unthinkable just a few months ago.

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The poll conducted by the Kandar Institute for the Sunday edition of the daily Bild gives 28% to environmentalists, a jump of six points compared to the previous survey, which follows the appointment by the movement of its co-president, Annalena Baerbock , as a candidate for the chancellery.

Angela Merkel's conservatives for their part lost two points to 27%, in the wake of the controversial appointment of their leader, the president of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Armin Laschet, not very popular in public opinion.

The Social Democratic Party (SPD), which today governs with the right in a coalition, is also losing ground with only 13%, as are the far right (at 10%) and the far left ( at 7%).

Five months before the poll

Another poll published Tuesday on behalf of the RTL and NTV television channels also gave the Greens for the first time in the lead in voting intentions, and also at 28%, ahead of the right. The appointment by environmentalists of Ms. Baerbock, 40, a proponent of a rather moderate line on the defense of the environment and who campaigns on renewal, has boosted the movement in public opinion: it has recorded more than 2,000 new memberships since the start of the week.

“In the last few days the Greens have managed to rally conservative, social democratic and radical left voters. They are campaigning on currently promising themes and Annalena Baerbock is taking advantage of the weakness of her competitors ”

, an official of the Kantar demoscopic institute, Torsten Schneider-Haase, told the daily Bild.

The Conservatives meanwhile continue to settle their scores internally following a form of "primary" which has left deep divisions.

The loser of the race for the candidacy for the succession of Angela Merkel - who will leave power after the elections - within the right, the Bavarian Markus Söder, strongly attacked this weekend the winner Armin Laschet.

He said he was "not convinced" by his designation and considered that the CDU party was going through "a crisis".

Read also: Is our perception of Germany unrealistic?

"Five months before the election, the CDU is at the lowest in the polls, it remains confronted with the difficulties of the pandemic and a certain wear and tear is felt in the party after 16 years"

of power of Angela Merkel, he said released in the daily Nürnberger Nachrichten. He set the conservative camp the goal of achieving in the elections "well over 30%", after a result in 2017 historically low at 32.9%. At the time, environmentalists had registered only 8.9%.

“A lot of people think that after 16 years it might be time to govern without the Conservatives. We would be well advised not to underestimate this ”

, warned Mr. Söder, while Mr. Laschet and his entourage remain convinced that their popularity will rise as soon as the restrictions linked to the pandemic are lifted, probably from the summer.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-04-26

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