{"id":1777,"date":"2026-04-02T13:03:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/1777\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T13:03:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:03:06","slug":"merzs-popularity-sinks-to-new-lows-as-german-government-support-collapses-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/1777\/","title":{"rendered":"Merz\u2019s popularity sinks to new lows as German government support collapses \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

The dire favorability scores reflect dissatisfaction with a government increasingly defined by missteps and internal strain. Merz\u2019s hardline turn on migration \u2014 including this week\u2019s proposal that up to 80 percent of Syrian refugees leave Germany<\/a> \u2014 has triggered backlash from his own coalition. His efforts to strike deals with the Taliban<\/a> to deport migrants to Afghanistan, and the imposition of tighter border controls<\/a>, have also been widely criticized.<\/p>\n

Merz, a former businessman, is also failing to win over voters with his economic agenda. He came to power promising to modernize Germany and kickstart growth with a \u20ac500 billion spending plan<\/a>, but reforms have moved slower than expected, and unemployment has climbed to 6.6 percent<\/a> \u2014 the highest level in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

The political consequences of the discontent are already evident. The CDU suffered a stinging defeat<\/a> in regional elections in Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg in early March, and the far-right Alternative for Germany is now neck-and-neck<\/a> with Merz\u2019s conservatives in national polls. <\/p>\n

The one consolation the chancellor can take from the polling results is that his party is doing a bit better than its center-left coalition partner. A mere 13 percent of Germans approve of the SPD, and only 18 percent back the party\u2019s co-leader, Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil.<\/p>\n

The low favorability scores reflect the SPD\u2019s heavy losses in the Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg vote, where the party was backed by just 5.5 percent<\/a> of voters, and its defeat in Rhineland-Palatinate<\/a> after 35 years in power.<\/p>\n

The polling numbers bode badly for both the SPD and the CDU ahead of two key regional elections in Eastern Germany, where the AfD is leading in polls. Pressure is growing on the chancellor to steady a government that appears to have already lost the confidence of Germany\u2019s electorate.<\/p>\n

Nette N\u00f6stlinger contributed reporting from Berlin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The dire favorability scores reflect dissatisfaction with a government increasingly defined by missteps and internal strain. Merz\u2019s hardline…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1747,1607,1748,1418,1749,666,393,688,5,689,690,1750,691,1751],"class_list":{"0":"post-1777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-borders","9":"tag-elections","10":"tag-european-politics","11":"tag-extremism","12":"tag-far-right","13":"tag-finance","14":"tag-friedrich-merz","15":"tag-german-politics","16":"tag-germany","17":"tag-growth","18":"tag-migration","19":"tag-olaf-scholz","20":"tag-refugees","21":"tag-unemployment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}