Merkel's party climbed to highest opinion poll in 7 years

PanARMENIAN.Net - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives have climbed to their highest opinion poll level in nearly seven years but will not be able to continue their center-right coalition with the slumping Free Democrats (FDP), a survey said.

According to Reuters, the Forsa poll published on Wednesday, Dec 26, nine months before an election, found Merkel's Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) rising three points to 41 percent, the highest since March 2006.

The center-left opposition Social Democrats (SPD) and their Greens allies were down one point to a combined 40 percent. The SPD were steady at 27 percent while the Greens fell one point to 13 percent. The Left party were steady at eight percent.

Neither Merkel's center-right coalition nor the center-left would win a majority if those were the election results.

German voters are in general pleased with the way Merkel's center-right government has led the country through the eurozone debt crisis, the country's most pressing issue.

The economy is in relatively good shape thanks to strong export industries and the government expects the economy to continue expanding in 2013. Unemployment has held steady near two-decade lows of 6.9 percent.