Photo: DPAGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief challenger in September elections, Martin Schulz, will battle at a party congress on Sunday to regain his footing in the campaign and reverse his plunging popularity. The SPD has suffered heavy losses in three straight state elections while Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has scored clear wins. Nationwide, the SPD is now trailing around 10 percentage points behind Merkel's CDU and Bavarian allies CSU. SPD party rank-and-file gathering in the western city of Dortmund on Sunday to approve their election campaign programme will be looking for reassurance amid the poor poll numbers. At a congress of German industry leaders this week, also attended by Merkel, Schulz signalled he was undeterred.

Source: The Local June 22, 2017 11:03 UTC