Merkel in poll boost

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party is at its most popular since winning a second term in 2009, polls showed yesterday, as voters cheered her handling of a debt crisis that most Germans think can be overcome.

Amid criticism from some quarters that her hardline push for austerity in debt-wracked countries risks tipping the eurozone into recession, Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) are polling 38 per cent, a survey showed.

That is the highest level since August 2009, a month before the election that swept her to a second term at the helm of Europe’s top economy.

The survey, conducted by the Forsa polling institute for Stern magazine, showed her junior coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats, languishing at three per cent.

However, due to the CDU’s strength, the current coalition was still ahead of their most likely opponents – a mix of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and ecologist Greens, which are polling at 27 and 13 per cent respectively.

“She is clearly pulling the union up,” said Manfred Guellner from the Forsa institute, referring to Mrs Merkel’s party.

Henrik Uterwedde, a political scientist at the Franco-German institute in Ludwigsburg, south-western Germany, said the country’s own strong economic performance throughout the crisis had bolstered support for Mrs Merkel.

“Unemployment has dropped sharply in Germany and it might drop even more this year despite the difficulties. Germany has become a leader in terms of economic performance this year,” he said.

Mrs Merkel is also giving the impression, especially at home, that she is defending German interests in Europe when it comes to the crisis, he added.