Merkel's poll lead shrinks in Germany

The lead in voter support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative alliance over the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) shrank to a multi-year low of 4 percentage points, an opinion poll showed yesterday. The SPD scored 29 percent in the survey published in newspaper Bild am Sonntag - a six-point jump that Bild said was the biggest pollster Emnid had ever recorded for the party.