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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

More than a third of German voters undecided before election, shows poll

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BERLIN: Support for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives has slipped and over a third of Germans are still unsure how they will vote, an opinion poll showed on Friday, fuelling uncertainty about what kind of coalition will emerge from an election on September 24.


The weekly survey, conducted by pollster Forschungsgruppe Wahlen for ZDF television, showed support for Merkel’s conservative bloc falling 2 points to 36 per cent — a result that would still make it the largest group in parliament.


Support for its nearest rivals, the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD), rose by 1 point to 23 per cent. The business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) and the anti-immigration, euro-hostile Alternative for Germany (AfD) were both on 10 per cent.


The poll of 1,383 voters, conducted from September 12 to September 14, also showed that 39 per cent of those surveyed were still unsure how they would vote.


“More than ever, all these polls should be taken with a grain of salt now. There surely could be some surprises on election night,” said Gero Neugebauer, political scientist at Berlin’s Free University.


He doubted the SPD could overtake Merkel’s conservatives, who he expected to be the largest parliamentary party with the Social Democrats the second biggest.


“But in the fight among the smaller parties for third place and possible power in a coalition, everything is still up in the air,” Neugebauer added.


With the election likely to install six parties in parliament, up from four now, Germany will be marked by a more fractured political landscape after the vote. This could make coalition-building difficult.


Friday’s poll showed support for the far-left Linke stood at 9 per cent, with the environmentalist Greens on 8 per cent.


Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a senior Social Democrat, told broadcaster SWR he favoured a so-called “traffic light” coalition with the FDP and Greens. However, the poll put support for such an alliance at just 41 per cent.


The survey showed there would be sufficient support for both a repeat of the incumbent “grand coalition” of Merkel’s conservatives and the SPD, and for a so-called “Jamaica” coalition of the conservatives, FDP and Greens.


However, Greens co-leader Cem Ozdemir sounded a sceptical note about a possible three-way Jamaica tie-up — a reference to the parties’ colours: black (conservatives), yellow (FDP) and green (Greens). — Reuters


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