As I pointed out, that was only because no strong outsider was willing to run against her.

That changed when SPD selected Martin Schulz rather than Merkel's junior coalition partner Sigmar Gabriel as its candidate.

Polls now show Schulz overtakes Merkel in opinion poll as favorite for German chancellor

German voters would elect the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Martin Schulz as chancellor if the country were to hold direct elections today, an opinion poll conducted for the German broadcaster ARD revealed on Thursday.

Schulz would receive 50 percent of votes cast while Angela Merkel, the current chancellor and head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), would receive 34 percent of the vote.