Berlin election: Left party narrowly leads CDU in new poll

Nine days before Berlin's state election, a ZDF poll shows the Left party narrowly leading the CDU, with 23 percent versus 21 percent, while the AfD trails at 17 percent. The data was collected before news broke of an investigation into the SPD's top candidate. The Greens stand at 16 percent and the SPD at 10 percent, while the BSW would fail to enter parliament. The current black-red coalition would lose its majority, making possible alliances like Left-Greens-SPD or CDU-Greens-SPD. The poll surveyed 1,100 people with a margin of error of plus/minus three points. Recent polls have shown a tight race among the top parties, with different institutes varying on the leader. The election on September 20 follows Mayor Kai Wegner's withdrawal from the CDU candidacy after criticism over his handling of January's power outage.