BREAKING NEWS

Germany's Social Democrats behind Merkel's conservatives, poll shows

BERLIN - Germany's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) are trailing Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, an opinion poll showed on Tuesday, after a different survey on Sunday put the SPD ahead.
The Allensbach poll, which is due to be published in newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Wednesday, showed Merkel's conservative bloc on 33 percent - ahead of the SPD on 30.5 percent.
The poll showed the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) on 8.5 percent while the far-left Linke and the Greens were both on 8 percent.
The liberal Free Democrats (FDP) were on 7 percent - above the 5-percent threshold needed to enter parliament.
The poll of 1,542 people was carried out between Feb. 1 and Feb. 15.