As Angela Merkel’s position as German chancellor enters its final phase, her popularity is increasing, according to a latest poll, while her successor as head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, has seen her approval ratings drop.
More than half (52 percent) of Germans say they are satisfied or very satisfied with how Merkel is governing their country, slightly more than in the previous month’s survey, according to a poll published late Thursday.
While 37 percent of Germans would like Merkel’s chancellorship to end early, 59 percent say they want her to see out her term, which ends in 2021.
Kramp-Karrenbauer, the new leader of the center-right CDU and potential Merkel successor, saw her approval ratings drop by eight points to 37 percent since February, dented by negative media coverage following a televised Carnival event during which she made a joke about gender-neutral bathrooms.
According to the poll, just 30 percent of Germans are pleased with what Merkel’s government has achieved, however, and 81 percent believe the chancellor “has significantly lost support” in the governing coalition of CDU/CSU and the Social Democrats.
If Germans were to choose a new government this weekend, the ruling coalition would fail to win a majority, with the CDU/CSU (29 percent) and SPD (17 percent) together polling 46 percent. The so-called “Jamaica” coalition of CDU/CSU, the Greens (19 percent) and the pro-business FDP (8 percent) would win a comfortable majority of 56 percent, the poll indicated.