Merkel’s party ratings plummet before the election

As no party will have enough votes to form a majority, Germany faces coalition talks


In Germany, incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc rating has fallen to 19% before the parliamentary elections. This is the worst figure since 1949, the RTL television channel reported citing data from a Forsa poll on Tuesday, September 7.

The Social Democratic Party, whose leader Olaf Scholz is the highest-ranking of the current candidates for Germany’s chancellor, has come out on top in opinion polls in Germany. The Social Democrats have 25% of voters ready to vote for them.

In third place is the Alliance 90/Greens with 17% and in fourth place the Free Democratic Party with 13%.

The pro-Russian right-wing party Alternative for Germany picks up 11% and the Socialist Party of the Left 6%.

Since neither party will have enough votes to form a majority, coalition talks await Germany. German journalists estimate that a coalition will need three parties, such as the SPD, the Greens and the Free Democratic Party (or Left). It will not be possible to maintain the current coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD – they are gaining too few mandates.

It should be recalled that in the previous Bundestag elections in September 2017, Merkel’s bloc won 33% and the Social Democrats 20.5%. At the same time, a coalition was not formed until February 2018.