Berlin, Germany – Most Germans view the conservative leader Friedrich Merz as the front-runner ahead of the country’s federal elections expected next year, a survey conducted by YouGov for dpa and published on Wednesday showed.
Of nearly 2,200 respondents, 44% see Merz, the head of the Christian Democratic Union party ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats (SPD), who was supported by 6% of those surveyed.
Merz is the leading choice across all age groups, especially among older voters, where 57% of those over 70 favour him, compared to just 3% for Scholz.
Scholz also lacks strong support from his own party base. Only 8% of SPD voters from 2021 believe he has a chance for a second term.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens got 7% support.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) leader Alice Weidel was viewed as a potential chancellor candidate by 13% of respondents, despite the improbability of her getting Germany’s top political job, as no other party will work with the AfD in a coalition.
YouGov polled 2,193 people from November 8 to 12, and put the margin of error at +/- 2.1 percentage points.
Scholz’s squabbling coalition, which had been hanging by a thread, finally came apart last week when the chancellor fired a key minister from the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).
Since the FDP no longer belongs to the coalition, Scholz lacks a majority in the Bundestag. That sets the stage for a vote of confidence next month that Scholz is all but certain to lose.
The election is expected to take place on February 23, but more than a quarter of respondents (29%) were undecided about the possible outcome.
(dpa)
