Majority of Germans want Chancellor Merz to resign, poll finds

BERLIN — A majority of Germans want Chancellor Friedrich Merz to resign following a series of poor regional election results for his conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), according to a new survey released Wednesday.The Forsa poll for broadcasters RTL and n-tv found that 55% of respondents believe Merz should step down, while 40% want him to remain in office.Support for his resignation was higher in eastern Germany, where 68% said he should leave office, compared with 53% in western Germany. Even among supporters of the CDU/CSU alliance, 21% favored his resignation.Merz’s approval ratings have also fallen to a new low. Only 11% of respondents said they were satisfied with his performance as chancellor, while 87% expressed dissatisfaction.The findings come after a difficult series of regional elections for the CDU. The party failed to clear the threshold for representation in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state parliament, saw its support fall sharply in Saxony-Anhalt and suffered defeat in Berlin.At the national level, the CDU/CSU alliance remains at 20% in the latest Forsa trend barometer, while the AfD stands at 27%.The survey also examined the reasons behind the CDU’s declining support.According to the poll, 66% of respondents held Merz personally responsible for the party’s electoral losses, while 81% said the CDU was no longer sufficiently focused on people’s everyday concerns.Nearly two-thirds, or 64%, cited the reversal of a campaign pledge on taking on new debt as another reason for the CDU/CSU’s losses, while 57% said government policy was not socially balanced.