Survey: Majority of Germans believe Merz has failed as chancellor

A majority of Germans believe Chancellor Friedrich Merz's term in office has been a failure. 

A survey by the Ipsos Institute for the Spiegel news magazine found on Wednesday that 48% of respondents agreed fully with the statement that Merz's government "has failed," with a further 19% somewhat agreeing. 

The picture was even clearer in eastern German states, where a total of 80% said they somewhat or fully agreed with the statement, compared to 64% in western states. 

The study - which surveyed around 2,000 people across Germany online between September 30 and October 4 - comes after Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU) suffered a trio of election defeats in eastern Germany last month. 

The under-fire chancellor has refused to step down, insisting that his coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), forged after the February 2025 parliamentary election, will implement its reform agenda.

Despite Merz's historically poor approval ratings, there is no clear challenger for him in the CDU, the survey suggested. 

Of the three leading candidates - Bavarian Premier Markus Söder, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt or North Rhine-Westphalia Premier Hendrik Wüst - 43% of respondents said they believed none would do a better job than Merz.