Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has edged out in front in an opinion poll around two and a half weeks before voters in Berlin choose a new regional parliament, the House of Representatives.
According to the representative survey published on Wednesday and conducted by the polling organization Infratest dimap for regional public broadcaster RBB, the CDU would secure around 21% of the vote.
The Left Party would achieve 19%, while the Greens and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) are neck and neck on 18%. Behind them comes the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) with 11% and the economically left-leaning and socially conservative Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) with 4%.
This means that two-party coalitions are not possible. Mathematically, a coalition comprising the CDU, the Greens and the SPD, or one comprising The Left, the Greens and the SPD, would be conceivable.
A coalition of the CDU and the SPD is currently in power.
For the poll, a total of 1,279 people were surveyed by telephone and online between August 27 and 31. A new state parliament will be elected in Berlin on September 20.
Opinion polls are generally subject to uncertainty, as waning party loyalty and increasingly last-minute voting decisions make it difficult for polling organizations to weigh the data collected. In principle, polls merely reflect public opinion at the time of the survey and do not constitute predictions of an election result.
