Merkel bloc loses support to German right-wing party on refugee crisis
BERLIN (Reuters) - Support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives has slipped to its lowest since May on worries about the refugee crisis, a poll showed on Wednesday, while backing for an anti-immigrant party has risen sharply. The Forsa poll put the conservative bloc on 39 percent, one percentage point down from last week, and 2.5 points below its score at the last federal election two years ago. By contrast, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) gained two points in the past week, hitting 7 percent for the first time this year. German authorities are struggling to cope with the roughly 10,000 refugees arriving every day, many fleeing conflict in the Middle East. The government expects 800,000 or more people to arrive this year and media say it could be up to 1.5 million. Forsa chief Manfred Guellner said Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) were losing most support in eastern Germany and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), was also down sharply. "The attacks by Bavaria state premier Horst Seehofer on the chancellor are driving voters on the right wing of the CSU to the AfD," said Guellner. The Social Democrats (SPD), who share power with Merkel, gained one point to 25 percent. The opposition Greens and radical Left party were down one point each at 9 percent and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) were unchanged on 5 percent. Merkel, who has been chancellor for almost 10 years, is seeing a decline in her own popularity over her handling of the crisis and is under increasing criticism for throwing open Germany's borders to Syrian refugees. The poll showed Merkel's own popularity down 2 points at 47 percent, her lowest this year, compared with 15 points for SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel. Guellner noted that although she had lost 9 points in the last 10 weeks, she was still way ahead of other former chancellors, including Helmut Kohl who led the country to reunification 25 years ago. (Reporting by Madeline Chambers; editing by David Stamp)
