German Chancellor Angela Merkel takes off her face mask as she attends an official dismissal and appointment ceremony at the Bellevue presidential palace in Berlin on Thursday, a day after German politician Franziska Giffey resigned from her post as Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth over claims she plagiarized her doctoral thesis. Photo: AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday gave her would-be successor Armin Laschet a ringing endorsement, in a bid to shore up his ailing election campaign which has triggered fears that their party could crash out of government.

Merkel's conservative CDU-CSU alliance has led Germany in four coalitions since 2005 when she took office, but the country's future new government has been thrown open as her departure from the political stage nears.

The 67-year-old veteran will step down after September 26 elections and has so far refrained from commenting about who she preferred to take over from her.

But at a key election campaign rally on Saturday, she voiced strong backing for Laschet.

"It has always been important to him to place the individual and their inviolable dignity at the center of everything... I am deeply convinced that it is precisely with this attitude that (he) will serve the people of Germany as chancellor," she said at the rally. 

While Merkel's popularity ratings have held steady in the twilight of her reign, Laschet has struggled to find favor with voters.

The latest polls show their conservative bloc now hanging on to a narrow lead of 2 percentage points against junior coalition partners the Social Democrats, who have in recent weeks made big strides to overtake erstwhile runners-up the Greens.

A survey published Friday showed just as many Germans want the Social Democrats (SPD) to lead the next government as the conservatives - an alarmingly big drop of five percentage points in backing for the CDU-CSU from early August.

The SPD's chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz was also more popular with voters - some 41 percent of Germans prefer the center-left politician as next chancellor as compared to just 16 percent plumping for Laschet.

While frustration against the government over the coronavirus pandemic had initially weighed on the conservatives' popularity earlier in 2021, the mood had brightened as more Germans were vaccinated and curbs were eased.

AFP