BERLIN (Reuters) - A majority of Germans want Chancellor Friedrich Merz to resign, according to a new survey released Wednesday, as his conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party faced a series of dismal regional election results.
The poll, done for private broadcasters RTL and n-tv, found that 55% of respondents want Merz to step down, while 40% said he should remain chancellor.
In eastern Germany, support for his resignation rose to 68%, compared to 53 percent in the western part of the country.
Even among supporters of the CDU/CSU alliance, 21% said Merz should leave office.
The chancellor is historically unpopular, as a Forsa trend barometer confirmed again this week. Only 11% are satisfied with Merz’s performance in office, while 87% are not.
The people’s rejection of Merz may have played a role in the most recent state elections as well.
In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the CDU was ousted from the state parliament. In Saxony-Anhalt, its support plummeted to just over 17%. In Berlin, it suffered a clear defeat at the hands of The Left. Even in the latest poll, the CDU is now polling at only 20%.
The survey tried to get to the bottom of this decline in voter support. Some 66% of voters hold Merz personally responsible for the losses. However, there is another issue that respondents consider even more important: 81% say the CDU no longer cares about people’s everyday concerns.
The CDU leader is often described as out of touch, showing too little empathy for people’s concerns, according to the poll.
Almost two-thirds of respondents (64%) pointed to another reason for the vote losses suffered by the CDU and CSU, notably the breaking of the election campaign promise not to incur new debt. Furthermore, 57% believe that government policy is not socially balanced.