Brussels, 09/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - Jean-Claude Juncker, the EPP's candidate to become the next president of the European Commission, is reported to have gained ground over his German competitor, socialist Martin Schulz, in a televised debate on Thursday 8 May on ZDF in Germany and ORT in Austria, according to a poll carried out by German newspaper Bild on its website, in which 52% of the 6,600 voters said they favoured Juncker, and 48% Martin Schulz.
The debate was watched by 5.4 million people and will be followed by another big debate in Florence on Friday 9 May between all the candidates. This will be the second big debate of all the candidates at the head of the main European parties' lists, following the first debate in Maastricht on 28 April.
On Thursday evening, the conservative and socialist candidates tried to demonstrate that they have differing policies. A poll by Poll Watch on 7 May suggested that the conservatives would currently gain 216 seats at the European Parliament, compared with 205 for the socialists, which would make an EPP-S&D coalition a likely bet. The same poll suggested that 41% of German voters would prefer to see Martin Schulz as president of the European Commission, compared with just 24% for Jean-Claude Juncker. (SP)