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German Opposition's Lead Shrinks in Poll, Left Alliance Climbs
July 22 (Bloomberg) -- The German opposition's lead over Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic Party in polls for September's national election keeps shrinking as the new left alliance climbed, a survey for ARD television showed.Voter support for the Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, held at 42 percent, the poll by market researcher Infratest found. The Free Democratic Party, potential ally in a coalition government led by the CDU and CSU parties, fell one point to 7 percent. ,strong>The new Left Party, formerly known as the post-communist Party of Democratic Socialism which is campaigning with the pro- labor Election Alternative for Labor & Social Equality, rose one point to a record 12 percent. Schroeder's Social Democrats and his coalition partner, the Green Party, held at 27 percent and 9 percent respectively, according to the poll of 1,000 people. ``The main opposition's lead is withering,'' Udo Vorholt, a politics lecturer at the University of Dortmund, said in a telephone interview. ``The gap between both camps is nothing more than a whisker.'' A possible alliance of CDU, CSU and FDP parties, which ruled Germany for 16 years before Schroeder took office in 1998, has support of 49 percent of voters, the Infratest poll showed. Conversely, Schroeder's SPD, the Greens and the new left alliance would garner a combined 48 percent. EFL Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-07-23 |
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