BERLIN, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Germany's governing conservative union (CDU/CSU) would only get 26 percent of votes if there were a federal election next Sunday, the party's worst result in the history of the poll, according to the Politbarometer survey published by the German public broadcaster ZDF on Friday.
The Social Democratic Party (SPD), which has long lost the status of a large people's party in Germany, would gain two percentage points to 16 percent, according to the survey which interviewed more than 1,200 German voters.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) remained unchanged at 14 percent and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) also remained at 6 percent, while Germany's Left Party fell to 8 percent, according to the survey.
The Green Party gained one percentage point and reached 23 percent. This means that a coalition of CDU/CSU and Greens would still be the only two-party alliance with the necessary majority.
However, a coalition between Germany's parties of the political left spectrum, the Greens, SPD and Left Party, a so-called red-red-green coalition, would also barely reach a majority.
At the end of April, the CDU is planning to elect a new party leader. According to the ZDF Politbarometer, the CDU's former parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz has 27 percent of support, while Armin Laschet, minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia, has 24 percent and Norbert Roettgen, former minister for environment, 11 percent.
The race for the CDU party leadership and ultimately the party's next candidate for the Chancellery was triggered when Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer resigned as party leader and also rejected a candidacy for the chancellorship.
When asked who would be suitable as Germany's chancellor, respondents of the survey were "rather divided" between Merz and Laschet, the Politbarometer noted. While 39 percent considered Merz a "suitable" chancellor, 44 percent denied him this ability. Slightly less Germans considered Laschet suitable to lead the country, but the number of Germans who thought him unsuitable was also lower.
Until the question of the CDU party lead is settled, 72 percent of German voters thought it was "good" that Angela Merkel would remain chancellor until the end of the legislative period in 2021. Enditem
