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Merkel’s partners reach key five percent support

The struggling Free Democratic Party obtained the key five percent of national support for the first time since August of last year, according to a poll released Sunday. This could put the junior coalition partner back in the political game.

Published: 29 April 2012 10:01 CEST

Merkel's partners reach key five percent support

Photo: DPA

The Emnid poll, commissioned weekly by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, showed the FDP gaining one point over last week’s survey and reaching five percent – the hurdle needed by parties to get parliamentary representation.

The poll, from the respected opinion research institute, is good news for the FDP as it comes just one week before key state elections in Schleswig Holstein and two weeks before similar elections in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Under German law, parties who do not obtain a minimum of five percent of the vote are not allowed to send representatives to parliament.

The poll also showed a one-point gain for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, with the CDU reaching 35 percent this week. Rumours have been flying that Merkel was preparing to ditch the FDP as governing partners if they fail to clear the five percent hurdle at the state elections.

Both the Social Democratic Party and the Pirate party lost one point, with the SPD now at 26 percent and the Pirates at 11 percent. The Greens and the Left party stayed the same as the previous week, with 13 percent and seven percent respectively. Other parties accumulated a total of three percent.

DAPD/The Local/mw

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Germany's Scholz rejects calls for later retirement in Labour Day message

“For me, it is a question of decency not to deny those who have worked for a long time the retirement they deserve,” said Scholz.

Employees in Germany worked more hours in 2023 than ever before: “That’s why it annoys me when some people talk disparagingly about ‘Germany’s theme park’ – or when people call for raising the retirement age,” he said.

Scholz also warned of creating uncertainty due to new debates about the retirement age. “Younger people who are just starting out in their working lives also have the right to know how long they have to work,” he said.

Scholz did not explicitly say who the criticism was targeted at, but at its party conference last weekend, the coalition partner FDP called for the abolition of pensions at 63 for those with long-term insurance, angering its government partners SPD and the Greens.

Scholz saw the introduction of the minimum wage nine years ago – and its increase to twelve euros per hour by his government – as a “great success”. “The proportion of poorly paid jobs in our country has shrunk as a result,” he said.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Is it worthwhile to set up a private pension plan in Germany?

However, he said there were still too many people “who work hard for too little money,” highlighting the additional support available through housing benefit, child allowance and the reduction of social security contributions for low earners.

“Good collective wage agreements also ensure that many employees finally have more money in their pockets again,” he added.

And he said that the country wouldn’t “run out of work” in the coming years.

“On the contrary! We need more workers,” he said, explaining that that’s why his government is ensuring “that those who fled to us from Russia’s war in Ukraine get work more quickly.”

Work means “more than making money,” said Scholz. “Work also means: belonging, having colleagues, experiencing recognition and appreciation.”

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