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Merkel's conservatives lash out at eurosceptics as polls narrow

18 September 2013 18:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Angela Merkel's conservatives switched tactics four days before Germany's general election and attacked a eurosceptic party whose rapid rise endangers her center-right coalition's bid to defend its majority in Sunday's vote, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), which had deliberately ignored the small Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) so far in the campaign, deployed one of their most respected figures - Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble - to rip into the new party.

"These people claim 'We'd be better off economically without the euro'," the minister, celebrating his 71st birthday, told the weekly Die Zeit. "That claim is totally wrong, has no credibility and is extremely dangerous for our prosperity."

The AfD, created in February, has up to 4 percent support in opinion polls. If it clears the 5 percent threshold for entering parliament in the September 22 vote, it could rob Merkel of any chance of securing another center-right majority.

While Merkel's conservatives are almost certain to come first and win her a third term, two recent polls have put her coalition a point behind the combined opposition.

If the conservatives and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) don't win a majority, she may be forced into a 'grand coalition' with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), which could take a softer line towards struggling southern euro zone countries.

"The final phase of the German election campaign has not gone well for Chancellor Merkel," wrote Holger Schmieding, chief economist of Berenberg Bank, in a research note. "Momentum has turned slightly against her center-right coalition."

The closely watched Allensbach poll for the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily, out on Wednesday, showed the conservatives down a point at 39 percent and the FDP steady at 6 percent, giving the center-right 45 percent.

The combined opposition was 1 point ahead, with the SPD up a point at 26 percent, their Greens partners at 11 percent and the hardline Left at 9 percent. Because the SPD and Greens rule out a coalition with the Left, the most likely scenario is a repeat of the 'grand coalition' that Merkel led between 2005 and 2009.