BERLIN: Support for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives has slipped and over a third of Germans are still undecided how they will vote in the Sept. 24 election, an opinion poll showed on Friday.
The weekly survey, conducted by pollster Forschungsgruppe Wahlen for ZDF television, showed support for Merkel’s conservative bloc falling 2 points to 36 percent — 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 percent. The business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) and the anti-immigration, euro-hostile Alternative for Germany (AfD) were both on 10 percent.
The far-left Die Linke stood at 9 percent and the left-leaning enviromental The Greens at 8 percent.
The poll of 1,383 voters, conducted from Sept. 12 to Sept. 14, also showed that 39 percent of those surveyed were still unsure how they would vote.
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 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 skeptical note about a possible three-way Jamaica tie-up — a reference to the parties’ colors: black, yellow and green.
“I don’t see how we should get together with the FDP,” he told the daily Berliner Zeitung.
The poll’s margin of error was some 3 percentage points. With support for Merkel’s conservatives and the FDP — natural allies who have ruled together in the past — at 46 percent, the margin of error suggests they could yet squeak into power.
A separate poll released on Thursday showed support for the SPD had slumped to its lowest level this year — at 20 percent — with Merkel’s conservatives steady at 37 percent.
Merkel’s conservatives lose support before election, poll shows
Merkel’s conservatives lose support before election, poll shows
UK police arrest former ambassador Peter Mandelson in probe into Epstein ties
- Former UK ambassador to the US arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office
LONDON: British police on Monday arrested Peter Mandelson, a former UK ambassador to the United States, in a misconduct probe stemming from his ties with Jeffrey Epstein.
London’s Metropolitan Police force said “officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office” at an address in north London.
It did not name Mandelson, in keeping with British police practice, but the suspect in the case has previously been identified as Mandelson.
Police are investigating Mandelson over documents suggesting he passed sensitive government information to Epstein a decade and a half ago. He does not face any allegations of sexual misconduct.
His arrest comes four days after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew, was arrested on suspicion of a similar offense related to his friendship with Epstein.
Mandelson was fired from his diplomatic post in September after emails were published showing that he maintained a friendship with Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor. When more details emerged in documents released by the US Justice Department last month, police opened a criminal probe.
