As of: March 13, 2024, 8:57 p.m
By: Laura May
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Friedrich Merz cannot score points in surveys despite the unpopular traffic light coalition.
Only one group is behind the CDU leader.
Berlin – Friedrich Merz is more unpopular than Angela Merkel.
In contrast to the long-term chancellor, Merz does not manage to unite the party's various currents.
But Merz is not just unpopular compared to Merkel.
He is currently in a bad position even compared to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) or ex-CDU leader Armin Laschet.
Only the right-wing spectrum of Union voters is currently united behind the CDU leader, according to a study by the opinion research institute Forsa.
This is the only group of voters where Merz now receives a higher share than Angela Merkel used to.
Only a tenth of young women want Merz to be their candidate for chancellor
Due to harsh rhetoric and right-wing conservative statements, for example on migration policy, Merz has lost moderate support in the CDU/CSU.
This is particularly visible among the young women voter group.
Forsa
informed in a press release from March 13th: “Of the 18 to 29 year old women, only less than a tenth would currently vote for Merz in a direct election for Chancellor.
For Merkel this was five times more in 2017 (52 percent).
Merz's policies appeal to a very specific group of voters.
Centrist voters and sympathizers from other political camps do not identify with him.
But even within the CDU, Merkel was significantly more popular than Merz: her support at 92 percent was significantly greater than Merz's current support at 58 percent.
Friedrich Merz (CDU) 2020 in Hagen.
© IMAGO/Jakob Studnar
Merz is even more unpopular than Laschet and Scholz
However, Merz's current poll numbers are not only below Merkel's values.
The Union's current poll figure of 30 percent is around 3 percentage points below the poll figures in March 2021, when Armin Laschet was the CDU party chairman.
In the federal election in September 2021, the Union only achieved 24.1 percent - so the actual election result could be even worse under Merz.
According to Forsa, Olaf Scholz, who himself is considered quite unpopular, could ultimately benefit from Merz's bad image.
Many doubt whether Germany would be in good hands under Merz.
And: Despite the poor image of the traffic light coalition, 41 percent of those surveyed find the Chancellor “likeable,” while only 22 percent of those surveyed said the same about Merz.
(lm)