Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian CDU/CSU bloc would easily win an election, although three-quarters of Germans are dissatisfied with the current government, according to a poll published Friday, according to dpa. Merkel has returned to the top spot in the personal popularity stakes, easing out Social Democrat (SPD) Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, according to the ZDF-Politbarometer poll of 1,210 voters. If an election were held this Sunday, 40 per cent would back the CDU/CSU, while only 27 per cent would vote for the SPD. The Left Party of former communists and disaffected former SPD members, which has its main support base in the east of the country, would take third spot with 11 per cent. The Greens are on 9 per cent and the liberal FDP on 8, with 5 per cent going to fringe groups with scant chance of clearing the 5-per-cent hurdle to enter parliament. Despite the strength of the CDU/CSU and Merkel's personal popularity, 76 per cent of those polled were dissatisfied with how the government deals with the problems facing Germany, according to the poll taken April 15-17. After the September 2005 elections produced an inconclusive result, Merkel cobbled together an unwieldy "grand coalition" combining the CDU/CSU with the SPD for only the second time since World War II. The next elections to the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, must be held by September 2009.
