(Adnkronos) – Friedrich Merz emerges victorious from the four-way debate on Rtl-ntv that last night compared the main candidates for chancellor in next Sunday’s early elections in Germany: from a survey conducted by the Forsa institute after the ‘Quadrell’, it appears that Merz convinced more than the others (32%), followed, at a distance, by the outgoing chancellor, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz (25%), then, on equal merit, by the ecologist candidates Robert Habeck and Alternative for Germany Alice Weidel (18%). 7% of respondents would not assign an advantage to any of the candidates present.
The first place assigned by viewers to the Spitzenkandidat of the Union (CDU/CSU) reflects the moods recorded by the polls in recent weeks, subject to slight variations: according to the most recent Insa survey (of 15/2) 30% would vote for the Union. 21% of the electorate would choose AfD, then SPD (15%), Greens (13%), Linke (6%), Bsw (5%), FDP (4%).
The polls also show – a figure in line with the viewers’ response to the ‘Quadrell’ – that a majority of citizens are aiming for the “grand coalition” of the CDU/CSU with the SPD after the vote, led by the Union, with 39% – a significant increase of six percentage points in the last three weeks – in favour. And 76% – recorded a few days ago by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen for ZDF – expect this very solution, even though recently the controversies between the two sides, in particular on immigration and on the AfD’s support for the CDU have created strong divisions between the two formations.
