Ten days before elections in the northern city- state of Hamburg, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) face declining support, according to a poll published Thursday, according to dpa. The survey, commissioned by public broadcaster ARD, put the CDU on 39 per cent, ahead of the Social Democrats (SPD) on 35 per cent, suggesting forming a governing coalition after the February 24 election will be problematic. For the past four years Mayor Ole von Beust has governed the city at the head of a CDU government after the party secured 47 per cent of the vote in March 2004 and sufficient seats to rule without a coalition partner. The Infratest-dimap telephone poll of 1,000 respondents showed CDU support falling by 2 percentage points since the beginning of the month, while the SPD was 2 points up. The Greens came in on 10 per cent, with the Left Party on 8 per cent and the liberal FDP on 5 per cent. On this basis, the CDU would be unable to form a government with its preferred coalition partner, the FDP, while an SPD-Greens alliance would similarly fail to secure a majority. Neither the CDU nor the SPD are prepared to enter government in a western state with the Left, although the SPD has formed ruling coalitions with the party in eastern states. An SPD-Left coalition is currently in power in the city-state Berlin. The CDU suffered setbacks in elections on January 27 in the important western states of Lower Saxony and Hesse, which were seen as mid-term tests of Merkel's leadership. In Lower Saxony, a CDU-FDP government hung onto power, even though the CDU lost support. In Hesse, where the CDU had ruled without a partner, a drastic loss of support for the party has led to a deadlock in the state parliament that remains unresolved. At federal level, Merkel heads an unwieldy broad coalition combining her conservative Christian CDU/CSU bloc with the SPD. The next federal elections must be held by September 2009.
