Enlarge image
Chancellor Merkel
Photo:
CLEMENS BILAN / EPA
The end of the Merkel era is drawing near.
After the federal election in autumn and the subsequent formation of a government, the Chancellor will end.
This is what she announced last year.
In the end, she will have been in office for a good 16 years, four terms in office.
However, this seems too long for many today.
Most recently, the Lower Saxony CDU boss Bernd Althusmann and the Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock rekindled the debate about a time limit for the chancellorship.
This meets with approval from the Germans.
In a representative survey by the opinion research institute Civey for SPIEGEL, 70 percent are in favor of a term limit.
The proponents of a time limit split into two groups.
In addition to the term of office for the Chancellor, an extension of the term of office from four to five years is currently being discussed.
This proposal also comes from the CDU politician Althusmann, among others.
According to the SPIEGEL survey, just under a quarter received approval.
Almost twice as many respondents want to fix the chancellorship to a maximum of two terms of office of four years each - and thus speak out in favor of maintaining the current length of the term.
22 percent of those surveyed support a continued unlimited chancellorship.
Among the supporters of the Union and the Greens, 65 percent are in favor of a fixed term for the chancellorship.
SPD supporters are slightly higher at 67 percent.
The support for a time limit is significantly greater among Left, FDP and AfD sympathizers.
Looking at Angela Merkel herself, two thirds think she has been in office for too long.
If you look at the respective voting intentions, however, there are clear differences in the assessment.
Among the supporters of their own party family, only a good half say that Merkel had been in office too long.
Among the voters of the coalition partner SPD, 66 percent would have liked an earlier end of the Merkel era.
With the Greens it is 60 percent.
The values are significantly higher among supporters of the other opposition parties. 68 percent of left-wing supporters, 86 percent of FDP supporters and 97 percent of AfD supporters state that Merkel was too long Chancellor with four terms in office.
