Support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives has fallen by two percentage points to 39 per cent after a dispute over quotas requiring companies to hire more women executives, a poll published by Emnid showed yesterday .

Rebel members of Merkel’s centre-right coalition, including Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen, threatened to break ranks and vote with opposition parties that wanted to introduce a female quota from 2018, convinced that voluntary pledges to appoint more women have proven inadequate.

Emnid said the female quota incident was likely the reason for Merkel’s conservatives becoming less and less popular with voters.

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