Merkel shrugs off polls for party pitch

Chancellor's CDU now underdog in German election battle, survey shows

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, party will fight for a good outcome in the national election next month and won't be distracted by polls that indicate the party is losing ground among voters.

Surveys in the past weeks have shown that the center-right CDU, now headed by Armin Laschet who is seeking to succeed Merkel as chancellor, has been eclipsed by the center-left Social Democratic Party, or SPD, led by Olaf Scholz. Laschet, 60, is the governor of the country's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia.

Scholz, 63, has served as minister of finance and Germany's vice-chancellor under Merkel since 2018. He was the first mayor of the city-state of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018.

The CDU have been in a coalition government with the SPD since elections in 2017.

With the election on Sept 26, a poll by Forsa released on Tuesday shows that the SPD is now leading the CDU for the first time in 15 years. The poll put voter support for the SPD at 23 percent, 1 percentage point higher than Merkel's party.

Other parties are not far behind. The German Greens came in third with 18 percent support, while the Freedom Party received 12 percent. The far-right Alternative for Germany polled at 10 percent and the Left (LINKE) got 6 percent.

"We are fighting, or the party is fighting－I personally am not up for election," Merkel said on Tuesday at a news conference in Berlin. She announced in 2018 that she would not seek a fifth term after winning four consecutive elections and being chancellor since 2005.

Merkel also pointed to a "good opening" at the party's official campaign on Saturday.

"We will work every day to get a good election result and not look every day at the polls," said Merkel, who has enjoyed great popularity both in Germany and on the global stage. "Ultimately it is the ballots of voters in the ballot box that count."

Merkel also pointed to the major issues influencing public opinion－the COVID-19 pandemic and the evacuation in Afghanistan－and said they will be dealt with by the government "in such a way as good as possible for people in our country".

Merkel took to the campaign trail on Saturday to shore up support for Laschet.

"It has always been important to him to place the individual and their inviolable dignity at the center of everything … I am deeply convinced that it is precisely with this attitude that (he) will serve the people of Germany as chancellor," Merkel told a rally in Berlin.

Laschet also played down the result of the recent opinion polls.

"The support is there, and you know I don't evaluate polls when they are good and when they are bad," he told reporters in Berlin.

"We must exert ourselves, and everyone knows that everyone counts. That will give us motivation in the last five weeks until the election."

Sharp criticism

Laschet won his party's nomination as its chancellor candidate in March but the resurgent COVID-19 in his state has brought him much criticism for his handling of the pandemic. He also drew sharp criticism when he was caught on camera laughing during a visit to a town hit by floods last month.

In a rally in Karlsruhe in southern Germany on Monday, Scholz was jubilant about the recent polls.

"The polls are very good. And I want to honestly say that I am very touched that many entrust me with this office (of the German chancellor)," he said.

"CDU and CSU(Christian Social Union) should take a rest in the opposition. They governed this country long enough," Scholz said. The CDU and the CSU in Bavaria are running as an alliance in the elections.

Agencies contributed to this story.