Posted by Shoaib-ur-Rehman Siddiqui

The end result of the poll came per day after Der Spiegel reports newspaper said with in unsourced state that Merkel had proceeded to last 1/4 time period and had first started preparation her 2017 re-election promotion.

Germany is now ruled by a grand coalition, or Große Koalition often stylized as GroKo, comprising the CDU/CSU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

She reportedly also discussed some aspects of the campaign with Horst Seehofer who heads the CDU’s sister party in Bavaria, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

The survey of 1,860 people showed that for the first time since June 2005 support for the CDU/CSU was equal to that of all other parties that would surpass the 5-per cent hurdle required to win seats in the Bundestag lower house of parliament. The change came as support for the far-left Left party fell by one percentage point.

There was speculation two years ago that Merkel would step down in the middle of her current term but that was denied by her spokesman Steffen Seibert, who said Merkel would decide about a fourth term nearer to the election due in late 2017.

An absolute majority would give Merkel’s conservatives the chance to govern without compromising on issues such as pension reform and the minimum wage, as they have done with the SPD. She has been battered by the surveillance scandal, involving the NSA and Germany’s intelligence service, criticized for her handling of the Greek crisis and mocked for reducing a teenage refugee girl to tears. Merkel gave clear signals that she would run at the last annual CDU congress in Cologne in December. The chancellor is on a hiking holiday in the Alps.

In a country that cherishes stability after the Weimar Republic’s chaos contributed to Hitler’s rise, Merkel is only the eighth post-war chancellor.

Merkel has enjoyed popularity among Germans ever since she took up office in 2005. A fourth term would see her become one of the longest-serving leaders in Germany, behind only Helmut Köhl (16 years) and Otto von Bismarck (19 years).

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