German Greens overtake conservatives as chancellor candidates announced

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Greens overtook the conservatives to top an opinion poll released on the day that Angela Merkel's conservative bloc named Armin Laschet as its candidate to succeed her as chancellor in a September election.

A Forsa poll for RTL/n-tv put the conservative bloc on 21%, down 7 points, while the Greens, who on Monday presented their chancellor candidate, Annalena Baerbock, jumped 5 points to 28%.

"The nominations of Annalena Baerbock and Armin Laschet are greatly influencing the political mood," said pollster Manfred Guellner in a statement, adding that while voters viewed Baerbock favourably, Laschet had a negative effect for the conservatives.

Forsa said of 3,505 people questioned for the poll between April 13 and 20, some 1,502 were asked on April 20.

(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Alex Richardson)