Merz effect?

Union more popular than SPD again: survey shock for social democrats

Created: 2/1/2022Updated: 2/1/2022 10:59 p.m

By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi

According to a survey, the Union - now led by Friedrich Merz - is again ahead of the SPD.

© Michael Kappeler/dpa

Exactly when Friedrich Merz took the helm of the Union, the CDU/CSU was ahead of the SPD again, according to a current poll for the federal elections.

Munich – The federal elections in September last year are associated with pretty bad memories in the Union.

For the first time in 16 years, the party ended up back in the opposition and had to leave government to a traffic light coalition of SPD, FDP and Greens.

In addition, they ended up behind the Social Democrats.

It seems that the sun is slowly breaking through the clouds for the Union.

In time for the confirmation of Friedrich Merz as the new CDU boss, things are going up again.

Now the Union is apparently more popular with voters than the SPD.

According to the survey, the Union is ahead of the SPD again - the CDU/CSU is gaining ground while the Social Democrats are making losses

According to a Forsa survey, the Union is again somewhat more popular with voters in Germany than the SPD.

If there were a federal election on Sunday, the CDU/CSU would have 27 percent of the votes and the SPD 23 percent.

This emerges from the current "trend barometer" from RTL and ntv.

Compared to the results of the previous week, the Union gains three percentage points, the SPD loses two.

The Union last achieved a better value than the SPD in mid-August 2021. According to the survey, the FDP also lost one percentage point and fell below the 10 percent mark at 9 percent.

The values ​​for all other parties remain unchanged: the Greens are still 16 percent, the left 6 percent, the AfD 10 percent and other parties 9 percent.

At 23 percent, the proportion of non-voters and undecided roughly corresponds to the proportion of non-voters in the federal election.

Merz new CDU boss: "Confidence not lost" - General Secretary Czaja wants to work on "vacancies".

The new Union leader Friedrich Merz is determined to bring the party back to the top together with his team.

At the press conference after the postal vote for his confirmation as the new party leader, Merz said that although the federal government was in opposition, it had not lost self-confidence.

He assured the CDU top candidates, who will contest the election campaign in their countries, great support.

Information about the survey

 The data on party preferences was collected by the market and opinion research institute Forsa on behalf of RTL Germany.

Survey period: January 25 to 31, 2022

Database: 2501 respondents.

Statistical error tolerance: +/-2.5 percentage points.

The question was: "Which party would you vote for if there were a federal election next Sunday?"

At his side during the press conference was the new Secretary General, Mario Czaja.

He admitted that there were gaps in the election campaign.

However, they want to work on these deficits.

He did not go into the specific gaps.

In the countries where the election campaign is imminent, they want to make it clear "that the CDU has an important responsibility in this country," said Czaja.