END FOR MERKEL? Angela would be BEATEN by Martin Schulz if German election was held TODAY

Social Democrats (SPD) leader and Brexit opponent Mr Schulz, 61, who resigned from his EU presidency last month after earning more than £1million from the taxpayer in five years, is on target to win in the forthcoming elections, according to a new poll.

And 62-year-old Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democratic party (CDU), which has just ratified a law banning refugee families as well as a raft of immigration laws, will be more than decimated by the far-right.

Mr Schulz leads the SPD, which holds a minority share in Mrs Merkel’s ‘grand coalition’.

The SPD has been trailing the conservatives for years in opinion polls and last won an election under Gerhard Schroeder in 2002.

A poll commissioned by National newspaper Bild shows that Mrs Merkel is fast losing support after announcing her candidacy for the CDU in December.

The poll by INSA for Bild newspaper put the SPD on 31 per cent, and the conservatives on 30 per cent.

The populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) was projected third with 12 per cent, followed by the hard-left Die Linke on 10 per cent.

Mrs Merkel’s approval ratings have collapsed after The Federal Ministry of Finance revealed taxpayers will be spending £37billion (€43billion) for 2016 and 2017 migrant budget to “meet the challenges of the nation-state” last week.

Bundestag politicians have instigated an ‘Asylum Procedures Acceleration Act’ in a bid to speed up the process of deportation.

The German parliament has banned family reunion for two years, meaning battles to bring relatives, as currently happens in Britain, will no longer take place.

Now, despite swift action and even a call to ban the burka, Mrs Merkel is in a race against time to turn around public opinion.

Large scale sex attacks, terror sprees and horrific crimes, which have broken out all over Germany, have led to protests on the streets.

Another pollster Emnid’s also believes Mrs Merkel is on the way out.

The firm’s Torsten Schneider-Haase told Bild: “Martin Schulz is managing above all to win back former SPD voters and to appeal to them emotionally.

“Such a strong shift in party preferences within a week is a one-off.”

In October, Mrs Merkel’s own party called for her to form a new alliance with the surging AfD which was only founded in April 2013.

Politicians from the CDU fear they could lose their grip on control of the country and one prominent member has now called on an alliance between the parties.

During the regional elections, the AfD came second taking 24.3 per cent of the vote.

Currently the CDU is an alliance with the SPD and Greens.

At the time CDU MEP Hermann Winkler has called for a coalition between the AfD and his party.

Mr Winkler said if they joined forces at both national and the federal level there could be co-operation with the right-wing populists which would effectively secure Mrs Merkel’s control of the state.

He said: “If there is a conservative majority together with the AfD, we should form a coalition with them.”

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/763832/Angela-Merkel-Germany-polls-Martin-Schulz-European-Migrant-Crisis