The German Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schroder's Social Democrats climbed strongly in a key voter survey published yesterday, while the opposition Christian Democrats slumped again.
The monthly Polit-barometer survey by ZDF television found that support for the centre-left SPD jumped by two points to 40 per cent while the CDU dropped one point to 38 per cent. The Greens, who share power with the SPD, fell one point to five per cent and the Free Democrats were steady at seven per cent.
The closely followed survey, which was based on interviews with 1,255 voters, also found that Mr Schroder was the most popular politician in Germany for the first time since May 1999.
His popularity has climbed strongly in recent weeks as his government pushed through a sweeping tax reform programme.