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| Europe |
| Merkel's coalition widens poll lead |
| 2013-08-22 |
| [OMANOBSERVER] German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... 's ruling centre-right coalition widened its lead in an opinion poll released yesterday, one month before general elections. The alliance between Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU'CSU) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) would now win 47 per cent of the votes in the September 22 elections, up from 45 per cent a week earlier, a Forsa survey conducted for Stern magazine showed. The divided three-party leftist opposition would win 43 per cent of the ballots, the poll found. With 41 per cent of voters likely to cast ballots for Merkel's party, up 1 point, she could take her pick of future coalition partners. Forty-five per cent of votes can translate into a majority in the Bundestag parliament of just over 600 seats. Campaigning for the election is in full swing but has aroused little passion. Forsa's data showed more than half of voters under 30 did not even know when the election would take place. Forsa found 46 per cent of the 18-to-29 age group could correctly answer when the election date is. The rest gave wrong dates or did not know. Forsa conducted the poll before Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble's admission on Tuesday that a third bailout for Greece was likely. The issue has the potential to light up the campaign, since ordinary Germans are wary of aid to floundering euro zone neighbours. Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the opposition Social Democrats, challenged the chancellor to reveal what was planned for Greece. "Merkel has got to tell the truth, and do it before the election," he told the Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper. Merkel's front man said the issue of a third bailout for Greece was not discussed at a cabinet meeting yesterday. "Greece played no role at the cabinet meeting," Steffen Seibert said, adding that the current second bailout programme was not due to finish until the end of 2014. "There is nothing new," he said. "The programme is on track." Schaeuble's comment is not expected to benefit Gabriel's party. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Anyone know how the Piratenpartei is polling? |
| Posted by: Elmearong Gurly-Brown5896 2013-08-22 11:22 |