According to the latest ZDF Political Barometer<\/a>, 54% of Germans think Merz is doing a bad job as chancellor, while 43% rate his performance positively. <\/p>\nThe same survey found that six in ten Germans doubt Merz can effectively lead the CDU in the future, with 34% saying they believe he can. <\/p>\n
He also trails other German politicians in terms of personal popularity, scoring -0.5 on a scale of +5 to -5. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius tops this chart with a ranking of +2.1.<\/p>\n
Why have Merz’s ratings fallen?<\/p>\n
Political scientist at the University of Mannheim, Marc Debus, told Euronews the decline may partly reflect disappointment over the pace of reforms promised by the government. <\/p>\n
“The CDU\/CSU and the government under Friedrich Merz promised during the election campaign that change would come quickly and reforms would be launched rapidly,” Debus told Euronews.<\/p>\n
“However, these reforms were by no means adopted and implemented as quickly as promised; it was only in the winter and this spring that key changes in economic and social policy were introduced.”<\/p>\n
He added that regional elections, such as the one in Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg, can be used as a barometer of national political sentiment, with voters using the ballot to signal dissatisfaction or approval of the federal government. <\/p>\n
European leaders struggle in the polls<\/p>\n
Merz’s weak standing reflects a broader trend of unpopularity across Europe. As the chart shows, several European leaders are struggling to win over voters. <\/p>\n
France’s President Emmanuel Macron ranks last, with only 19% of French people holding a favourable opinion of him, according to YouGov.<\/p>\n
His ratings have remained consistently low over the past year, dipping sharply between August and September 2025 and before recovering slightly earlier this year. <\/p>\n
Macron is not alone in unpopular French leaders, who have historically received low approval ratings. In 2016, former French President Fran\u00e7ois Hollande famously scored just 4% of support.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, the UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer is rated similarly poorly, with just 21% of the British public holding a favourable opinion of him, and 71% who disapprove. <\/p>\n
Both Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni rank higher, with 32% of Spaniards having a favourable view of S\u00e1nchez and 35% expressing their approval of Meloni. Both leaders have seen broadly stable ratings. <\/p>\n
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stands out as the most popular leader among the six, with 43% of Danes saying they view her favourably amidst US President Donald Trump’s renewed threats on the island of Greenland. <\/p>\n
None of the leaders surveyed, however, were able to command a majority.<\/p>\n
Debus noted that governments across Europe are facing difficulties in delivering on their campaign promises due to international crises, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, contributing to a weaker economic situation. <\/p>\n
“For example, more funds may have to be allocated to defence rather than to other policy areas. This can contribute to general dissatisfaction among voters with governments,” he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party faced a setback on 8 March, when it failed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[242,233,249,264,304,7518],"class_list":{"0":"post-7778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-friedrich-merz","8":"tag-emmanuel-macron","9":"tag-friedrich-merz","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-keir-starmer","12":"tag-pedro-sanchez","13":"tag-popularity"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116343610307172895","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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