BERLIN, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- German Social Democrat (SPD) leader Martin Schulz is narrowing the gap with Angela Merkel (CDU) in the electoral race for Germany's chancellorship, an opinion poll published on Friday suggests.
With little over a week left to go before federal elections (Sept. 24), the poll "Politbarometer" for national television channel ZDF saw the SPD's support rise by 1 percentage point to 23 percent. At the same time, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) conservative sister parties witnessed their combined voter share drop by 2 percentage points to 36 percent.
The Free Democratic Party (FDP) and right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) were both tied in third place at 10 percent, having gained one percentage point each. In contrast, the Left party (Linke) and Green party (Gruene) stagnated at nine and eight percent respectively.
Last week saw the Social Democratic Party fall to 20 percent approval rating, recording the worst performance since Schulz became SPD leader in March.
