A majority of Germans think the leader of the Greens is not credible, a poll showed after plagiarism allegations were made against her this week, dealing a fresh blow to the woman aiming to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor in a Sept. vote.
The Greens surged briefly in polls after picking Annalena Baerbock in April as their candidate to run for chancellor. However, a regional election setback and scandals over a Christmas bonus payment and details of her resume have hit the party's support in the last few weeks.
Compounding their problems, a website that investigates plagiarism this week said Baerbock had lifted phrases from other texts without citing them in footnotes in her new book which sets out her political ideas.
The party has rejected the accusations and hired a prominent libel lawyer. A party spokesperson has said Baerbock was being subjected to a character assassination.
An INSA poll for Bild daily showed on Thursday that only 23.2% of those asked thought Baerbock was credible, compared with 58.4% who deemed her not credible.
Most polls now put Merkel's conservatives 8-10 percentage points ahead of the Greens. Depending on coalition arithmetic after the election on Sept. 26, the two blocs may end up joining forces in a coalition to run Europe's biggest economy.
(Reporting by Madeline Chambers, Editing by William Maclean)
