BERLIN (BLOOMBERG) – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc widened its lead in a weekly poll ahead of Germany’s election as support for the Green party slipped further.

Combined support for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its Bavaria-based CSU ally was unchanged at 28 per cent in Insa’s poll for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

The Greens retreated 1 percentage point to 19 per cent, shrinking their advantage over the Social Democratic Party, which polled 17 per cent.

It’s a comedown for the Greens after some polls put them ahead of the CDU-CSU in April, before Merkel’s bloc chose CDU chairman Armin Laschet as its candidate to succeed her as chancellor.

The pro-business Free Democrats, Laschet’s preferred coalition, declined 1 point to 12 per cent. The nationalist Alternative for Germany polled 11 per cent and the anti-capitalist Left party rose 1 point to 7 per cent.

If the Sept 26 election goes the way polls suggest, it’s likely that the only two-party coalition with a parliamentary majority to govern would be the CDU-CSU and the Greens. Merkel has led the government of Europe’s biggest economy for 16 years and isn’t seeking a fifth term.

The June 21-25 poll of 1,203 people has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

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