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Social Democrats gain support amid euro crisis

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Social Democrats gain support amid euro crisis
Photo: DPA

Popular support for the Social Democratic Party is at its highest level since 2008, reaching 29 percent, according to the latest Stern-RTL survey.

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A gain of two percentage points over the last week for the SPD, and a stable 19 percent support for the Greens puts a potential coalition between the two parties at 48 percent – 13 points ahead of the current coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) which together achieve 35 percent.

The CDU and its sister party the Christian Social Union together have lost a point since last week, according to the poll conducted by Forsa, which questioned 2,500 voters on their political intentions.

The FPD was stuck on four percent support, below the five-percent hurdle required for the party to get into parliament, while the Left party remained on nine percent.

Manfred Güllner, head of Forsa, told Stern magazine that not only was the SPD improving on overall rankings, but that trust in the party’s competence was also increasing.

He said the figures showed 16 percent of people trusted the Social Democrats with solving the country’s problems, up from 11 percent last week. Güllner said this was because, “now the classic economic themes are returning to the foreground.”

The debate on nuclear power in the spring had helped the Greens politically, but the daily political focus was favouring the SPD now that economics was dominating the news.

The most popular potential Social Democrat chancellors were former Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück and head of the parliamentary party Frank-Walter Steinmeier – also among non-SPD voters, said Güllner.

Of those who did not intend to vote for the SPD, 21 percent would do so if it were made clear that either Steinbrück or Steinmeier was the chancellor candidate.

The Local/hc

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