People & Politics # A Deceptive Jump – Chancellor and the CDU Ahead of the General Election # 26.06.2009

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reason to feel satisfied. In the European parliamentary elections, her conservative CDU/CSU clearly left the Social Democrats in the dust. And no politician in Germany is more popular at the moment that Angela Merkel. Current surveys show that she is likely to get a large enough majority in polls scheduled for September to form a coalition with the liberal Free Democrat Party, the FDP. But her lead is deceptive because the party is unable to profit from the chancellor's popularity.