 On the eve of the election, Merkel was still favored to win a decisive victory based on opinion polls.On 18 September 2005, Merkel's CDU/CSU and Schröder's SPD went head-to-head in the national elections, with the CDU/CSU winning 35.2% (CDU 27.8%/CSU 7.5%) of the second votes to the SPD's 34.2%.The result was so close, both Schröder and Merkel claimed victory.