Germany's Greens take lead in new opinion polls

Greens overtake Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives five months before general election

File photo: Co-leader of Germany's Green party and designated candidate for chancellor Annalena Baerbock holds a news conference in Berlin, Germany, April 19, 2021. Reuters

Germany's Greens continued their rise on Sunday, overtaking Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in an opinion poll five months before a general election.

The centre-left opposition party rose to 28 per cent in a poll for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, gaining six percentage points on the previous week for its best score in the regular survey carried out by the Kantar institute.

Mrs Merkel's centre-right Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union alliance lost two points, at 27 per cent support.

The centre-left Social Democrats, her junior coalition partners, fell to their worst score since August 2019 with 13 per cent.

The Greens' surge in popularity comes after the party on Monday named co-chair Annalena Baerbock, 40, as its first candidate for chancellor.

The nomination of Ms Baerbock, a centrist who advocates a greener economy and a tougher foreign policy stance on Russia and China, has been widely praised.

She will be the only woman in the race to succeed Mrs Merkel, who is bowing out after 16 years.

"Germans are in the mood for change," Bild reported.

Another opinion poll last Tuesday, for broadcasters RTL and NTV, was the first to put the Greens in the lead, also giving them 28 per cent support.

But political scientist Oskar Niedermayer at Berlin's Free University said the Green surge was mainly caused by "media hype" that was unlikely to last.

The Greens are polling well among a wide range of voters, but this will change as soon as their election manifesto becomes "more concrete", Mr Niedermayer said.

Some of the newly won supporters "will drift away again", he told the Handelsblatt financial daily.

Mrs Merkel's ruling conservatives have slumped in recent polls as voters punish them for perceived mistakes in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, corruption scandals and infighting.

Her bloc last week named CDU leader and North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Armin Laschet as its candidate for chancellor last week, after a bitter contest with CSU leader Markus Soeder.

But Mr Laschet, promoted as a continuity candidate as Germany enters the post-Merkel era, is deeply unpopular among Germans.

Observers say there is a realistic chance that the CDU-CSU will not be Germany's largest political force after the September 26 vote.

Bavarian premier Mr Soeder, who stepped aside in the race despite strong support and higher approval ratings than Mr Laschet, said at the weekend he was "not convinced" by his rival's candidacy.

The CDU/CSU bloc "needs a fresh start", he told the Sueddeutsche newspaper.

Mr Laschet sought to play down the dispute in the same newspaper, saying his top priority was to make sure the conservatives were "the biggest power" in German politics.

He also criticised Ms Baerbock's lack of governing experience.

"She talks. I take action," he said.

• Annalena Baerbock: the woman who could be Germany's first Green chancellor

• Germany's Greens announce Annalena Baerbock as candidate to succeed Angela Merkel

• Armin Laschet wins race to lead Angela Merkel's party into German election