Merkel support sinks,poll sees centre-left majority

Forsa said it was the centre right’s worst joint result since it began regular polls for Stern magazine in 1986.

The government’s approval ratings have sunk sharply since Merkel was re-elected in October last year,at the head of a new coalition of conservatives and liberals which has had to drop its campaign promises of tax cuts and has feuded over reforms.

The 56-year-old chancellor’s term should run until 2013.

While Merkel seems to have failed to capitalise on Germany’s strong economic recovery in the second quarter,her erstwhile Grand Coalition partners,the Social Democrats (SPD),have recovered from their worst post-war election result last year.

The Forsa poll showed the SPD and Greens well ahead of the government with 47 per cent support,which should be enough to give them a winning majority in parliament’s lower house.

The ruling coalition fared better in an Allensbach poll for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,scoring 38 per cent. But it also saw the SPD and Greens with a clear majority at 47 per cent.

Both of the largest parties are courting the Greens. The SPD has formed a minority government with them in Germany’s most populous state,North Rhine-Westphalia,while the CDU wants to maintain its two-year-old partnership with them in Hamburg.

But Forsa chief Manfred Guellner told Stern the two biggest parties should beware of identifying too much with the Greens.

The conservatives and SPD risk losing their identity. If they form coalitions with the Greens,they must make it clear who is in charge,said Guellner.