As of: January 28, 2024, 12:34 p.m
By: Maximilian Kurz
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Friedrich Merz accuses the traffic light government of having lost contact with the citizens.
He benefits from the unpopularity of the current government.
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
New survey: Opposition leader Friedrich Merz overtakes Chancellor Scholz in the popularity rankings for the first time - and the FDP falls below five percent.
Berlin – mass protests, budget holes – and repeated coalition disputes: The Union can apparently benefit from the weakness of the federal government.
Voters are increasingly trusting CDU leader Friedrich Merz - in contrast to SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
For the first time, the Union politician has overtaken the Social Democrat in the popularity rankings, as shown in a current survey by the opinion research institute INSA.
Chancellor question: Olaf Scholz or Friedrich Merz
In a phase of economic difficulties, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is confronted with many problems: a stagnating economy, budget deficits and ongoing trench warfare within his traffic light coalition.
Now the opposition leader is overtaking him in terms of popularity.
If the chancellor election were decided directly by the people, 28 percent of voters would currently vote for CDU leader Friedrich Merz, while Scholz would only receive 21 percent.
This is the largest lead that the polling institute INSA
has measured for
Bild am Sonntag so far.
Merz is ahead among men (29:24 percent) and women (28:18 percent), as well as in the west (28:23 percent) and particularly clearly in the east (31:15 percent).
Sunday trend: Why is the CDU winning?
A main reason for the increasing popularity of the CDU/CSU appears to be dissatisfaction with the Chancellor and his government: 70 percent of voters are dissatisfied with Scholz's work, 76 percent with the performance of the entire traffic light coalition (satisfied: 22 and 17 percent).
In addition, people have little hope for an economic recovery.
According to the INSA survey, 55 percent expect the German economy to develop negatively this year, while only 14 percent expect an upturn.
Whether Merz will run as the Union's candidate for chancellor in next year's federal election will be decided together with CSU leader Markus Söder in late summer.
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Traffic light coalition: Hardly popular with the population
The traffic light coalition continues to do poorly in the current survey.
The SPD gained one percentage point (to 14 percent) and is therefore ahead of the Greens (13 percent), but things look bleak for the FDP: only four percent of Germans would currently vote for the Liberals.
For the first time since the federal election, the FDP fell below the 5 percent threshold in Sunday's trend, which could mean a possible exit from the Bundestag next year.
In the Sunday trend, the Union leads with 31 percent (plus 1) ahead of the AfD with 21 percent (minus 1).
The new alliance around Sahra Wagenknecht achieved 7 percent, the Left had 4 percent.