German party SPD suffers further in popularity: polls

BERLIN, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A recent trend of decline in the popularity of the German Social Democrats (SPD) is reflected in another opinion poll, published on Friday by German public broadcaster ZDF.

According to the regular ZDF Politbarometer poll, levels of voter support for the SPD fell by two percentage points to a record low of 17 percent.

By contrast, the popularity of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/ Christian Social Union (CSU) rose by two percentage points to 33 percent.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was stagnant at 14 percent, followed by Green party (Gruene) at 12 percent (minus two percentage points), the Left party (Linke) at 11 percent (no change) and the Free Democratic party at eight percent (plus one percentage point).

The latest Insa-conducted poll published by German newspaper BILD had also seen support for the SPD decline to 15.5 percent, following a final coalition agreement with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc, placing the party behind the AfD (16 percent) for the first-ever time.

Despite the poor overall polling results for the SPD, the Politbarometer poll also suggested that the vast majority of its supporters (66 percent) were in favor of the party joining another cabinet under the likely leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Some 77 of SPD supporters and 67 percent of all respondents also indicated that the acting Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel should keep his current job in a new federal government.

Gabriel and ex-SPD leader Martin Schulz had become embroiled in a widely-publicized personnel dispute which culminated in the resignation of Schulz from politics and has raised serious doubts over Gabriel's ability to hold on to a ministerial post.

The new SPD leader Andrea Nahles said on Facebook on Friday that once again emphasized the need to overcome internal divisions and instead focus on the future orientation of the party.

Nahles vowed that she would not assume a cabinet position herself, but at the same time urged SPD members to vote in favor of signing the grand-coalition agreement in an ongoing party referendum. She promised that the SPD would retain its distinct social democratic character in government under her leadership and make it felt in resulting legislation.

"The SPD has secured so many good policies," the SPD leader highlighted significant concessions won from the CDU on Europe, labor law and pensions during the now-concluded coalition negotiations. She argued that the party would struggle to promote its agenda as effectively if it returned to the opposition benches of the federal parliament in Germany.

Nevertheless, significant factions within the SPD continue to campaign against entry into another grand-coalition. The SPD youth organization (Juso), in particular, has expressed concerns that he party would become electorally-marginalized during another four-year term in the shadow of Chancellor Merkel. Enditem