German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been bumped from the top spot in a regular poll of the country's favorite politician for the first time in two years, according to the Associated Press.

Public broadcaster ARD says Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had an approval rating of 70 percent, one point ahead of Merkel.

The gap is within the 3.1-percentage-point margin of error in the telephone poll of 1,008 voters conducted Feb 3-4.

The results released late Thursday, Feb 6, also had the anti-euro party Alternative fuer Deutschland at 6 percent in advance of the May 25 elections for the European Parliament. That's well ahead of the 3 percent threshold for parliamentary seats.