(Bloomberg) -- Germany's opposition Green Party overtook Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat-led bloc in an opinion poll after the group nominated Annalena Baerbock as its top candidate for the Sept. 26 national election.
The Greens gained six percentage points to 28% this week in a poll by opinion research company Kantar for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. It's the the highest share ever for the Green's in Kantar's weekly survey. Support for the Christian Democratic Union and its Christian Social Union Bavarian sister party dropped two points to 27%.
The latest poll follows the nomination this week of Baerbock for the Greens and Armin Laschet to run as chancellor candidate for the conservative bloc. The Social Democrats, Merkel's current coalition partner, lost two points to 13%, its lowest at Kantar since August 2019.
“In recent days, the Greens have managed to win over voters from the CDU/CSU, the SPD, the Left Party, but also non-voters,” Kantar pollster Torsten Schneider-Haase said in Bild. “They are addressing issues that are currently popular. What's more, Annalena Baerbock is benefiting from the weaknesses of her two competitors.”
The Greens Once Took On Germany, But Now They're Taking It Over
While Germans don't elect the chancellor directly, Baerbock would beat her competitors in such a three-way race, according to another poll, winning 30% of the vote. SPD candidate Olaf Scholz, currently vice chancellor and finance minister, would get 20% and Laschet 18%, Bild said, citing an INSA poll it commissioned.
Kantar surveyed 1,225 people between April 15 and 21 an INSA quizzed 1,000 people on April 23, Bild am Sonntag said.
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