Six out of 10 polls published over the last two weeks instead show an advantage for the Greens, who scraped into fifth place when Germany last went to the polls in 2017.
Polls in the run-up to the federal vote in 2005 indicated a towering 15-point lead over the governing Social Democrats for the CDU, then entering its first election with Merkel as candidate.
In 2017, too, the announcement of Social Democrat Martin Schulz’s candidacy pushed his centre-left party’s ratings above those of the governing CDU.
For the first time since 1949, Germans will head to the voting booth in an election where the incumbent chancellor will not be standing for reelection.