GREENS MOST POPULAR PARTY IN GERMANY 5 MONTHS BEFORE POLLS

If elections for Germany's federal parliament were held today, the Greens could enter the legislature as the strongest force, according to a new opinion poll released on Thursday, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

The opposition party has seen support steadily grow in recent years, but their popularity has swelled in the wake of the choice of Annalena Baerbock as their chancellor candidate for September's election.

The Greens have 26 percent of the vote, followed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU conservative bloc at 23 percent, according to the survey by Infratest dimap for public broadcaster ARD.

The conservatives saw support fall as Germans became increasingly frustrated with pandemic setbacks and the country's sluggish vaccine roll-out. A bruising internal power struggle over who would become the CDU/CSU's chancellor candidate added to the negative headlines.

Merkel ruled out standing again at the election after 16 years in power. The center-left Social Democrats continued their slide, losing 2 percentage points to 14 percent, just slightly ahead of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at 12 percent.

The poll was taken between May 3 and 5 and involved 1,351 eligible voters.

If Germans could directly elect their head of government, Green Party candidate Baerbock would get the most votes, according to another survey question asked by ARD.

With 28 percent of the vote, the Green Party leader is ahead of the CDU/CSU candidate Armin Laschet and SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz. The two men each stand at 21 percent.

WEEKLY FEATURE : TRUEMONEY PHILIPPINES BUCKS THE COVID-19 CHALLENGE