German Merkel's CDU Gains in Poll

Support for German opposition leader Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union rose five days before the federal election while its Free Democratic Party preferred ally lost support, creating a tie with the parties in Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's ruling coalition and the Left Party.

Backing for the CDU advanced 1.5 points from a week earlier to 42 percent, a poll by opinion researcher Emnid for N24 television showed. The FDP slipped 0.5 point to 6.5 percent, the poll of around 2,000 people between Sept. 9 and Sept. 12 showed.

Schroeder's Social Democrats fell 1 point to 33.5 percent while his Green party ally and the post-communist Left Party were unchanged at 7 percent and 8 percent, respectively, N24 said in an e-mail to news organizations. It's the last poll commissioned by N24 before the election, Bloomberg reports.