Support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party bloc rose for the first time in five months in a poll that signaled public concern about the European Union’s future after the U.K. voted to leave.
Merkel’s Christian Democrat-led faction would take 34 percent of the vote if elections were held now, three percentage points more than in June and the first increase since February, according to an Infratest Dimap poll for ARD television published Thursday. The Social Democrats, Germany’s second-biggest party and Merkel’s coalition partner, rose one percentage point to 22 percent. Anti-immigration Alternative for Germany dropped three points to 12 percent.
The poll points to a surge in German support for the EU as the outcome of the Brexit referendum sinks in. Asked whether Germany mostly benefits from the union, 52 percent agreed, compared with 46 percent the day after the U.K. ballot. Those saying the EU tends to disadvantage Germany declined three percentage points to 11 percent, ARD said on its website. The July 4-5 survey of 1,004 people has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage