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Poll shows only one in five Germans trust chancellor-in-waiting Merz

The survey was conducted on April 15 and 16 among 1,006 respondents

BERLIN, April 22. /TASS/. Only around 20% of Germans trust leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Friedrich Merz, who will take over as chancellor on May 6, according to an opinion poll conducted by the Forsa pollster in collaboration with Stern magazine and RTL television.

Thus, only one in five German citizens (21%) think that the chancellor-in-waiting is worthy of their trust. This is 9% lower than in August, and 3% down from January. Notably, only 17% of those polled said that they viewed Merz favorably. Moreover, 40% of those polled don’t think he is a strong leader and just 27% believe that he is in touch with the concerns of the people.

The poll was conducted on April 15 and 16 among 1,006 respondents.

On April 9, the leaders of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union bloc (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) backed a coalition treaty to form a new German government. The treaty is to be approved by SPD members, delegates to the CDU conference, and the CSU board. The latter party was the first of the three to okay the agreement. The CDU is expected to make a decision at its conference on April 28. The SPD kicked off voting among its members on April 15; it will run through April 29.

Snap parliamentary elections were held in Germany on February 23. The CDU/CSU bloc won the polls with 28.5% of votes. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) finished second with 20.8%, for the first time in its history. They were followed by the SPD (16.4%), the Greens (11.6%), and the Left Party (8.8%).

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