Germany updates: Third of voters say things worse under Merz – DW – 07/17/2025
The survey found that 32% of eligible voters believe Germany has worsened since Merz took office in May, while just 22% say the country has improved. A further 37% perceive no change at all.
Merz really, really did a large scale election campaign fraud: Campaigned on a platform of "no new debts, no new taxes", promised a lot and, well, they are now taking on new large scale debts, are talking about increasing taxes and abolishing holidays while moving to the right. Yeah, it's worse.
I know it's nitpicking, but Merz is chancellor, not president. Chancellor and president are two distinctly different offices in Germany.
His campaign being based on lies is not the same as election fraud.
There is no indication of relevant fraud happening with the 2025 elections themselves.
everyone with half a brain cell knew beforehand that given Germany's position, he most definitely would have to take up new debt (… or, alternatively, tax the rich - haha, fat chance).
so I know why CDU/CSU voters feel betrayed because Merz claimed he could do without but seriously… they had it coming.
but, he was elected. and that doesnt go away just because you cant fulfill campaign promises.
Who would've known (besides those who know some basics about politics)?
I've got it! Let's elect another neoliberal/conservative. That'll cure what ails ya!
Anyone who is surprised by this should have their head examined.
Yes many the guys who said the old traffic light coalition failed, succeed in a larger fail. The CxU lobbyists in the cabinet go from clusterfuck to clusterfuck daily. The try a kafkaesk German version of MAGA. You don't want to hear more about this.
The 37% that experienced no change will not feel the pain for several years as these policies take time to hollow out the country.
The CDU have implemented policies and taken actions that will result in a lower quality of life for the people of Germany. We must tax billionaires out of existence and protect our countries people and assets. 100 millionaires should not exist, and people like Merz should not be insulated from the pain and suffering they are all too willing to inflict on others.
Neoliberal «moderates» paving the road to the fascist right again. Happened in the US. Next up is UK, France, Germany, maybe Canada... Meanwhile, the Left everywhere, the only actual alternative, is derided as «delusional».
A good part of the left is delusional. The left worldwide largely forgot about its core issue, wealth and income distribution, in favour of ridiculous and highly divisive identity politics, throwing the working class, its former core clientele, to the fascists.
Unless the left finally realise that it's a class war, not a culture war, they'll only ever be able to appeal to a small privileged elite dwelling in the social sciences faculties of institutes of higher education that contents itself in cosplaying as the proletariat in their spare time.
On top of that, the German Left also is full of Putin bootlickers and hopelessly naive "pacifists" who confuse pacifism with passive submission to force.
While I agree the German left has too many Putin fans and vulgar pacifists. Your point on identity politics is a pretty reactionary point. Left politics means social justice. Class reductionism with social conservativism is not leftist politics. This is why you were compared to Wagenknecht in the past.
Thank you for this in-depth analysis (/s, just to be safe. The article consists of three sentences and doesn't even say who made the polling.)
You have to scroll down past the birth-rate and migrant article to get to the main body (I don't know why).
Third of German voters say situation is worse since Merz took power
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has entered the summer break with lukewarm public support, a new YouGov poll for German news agency DPA shows.
Try this direct link: https://p.dw.com/p/4xaaB
This is scary. The AfD might come to power.
That link brings me to an article called
Germany updates: Merz hails 'new chapter' in German-UK ties
So 68% are satisfied- that's quite ok in today's political climate 🙃
I'm not from Germany, so what could I know, but Scholz looked extremely indecisive. Did he make any decisions at all? In comparison to Scholz, any chancellor would appear like a crazy reformator. And people mostly dislike reforms.
In comparison to Scholz, any chancellor would appear like a crazy reformator. And people mostly dislike reforms.
Merz does exactly what has been happening for the last 20 years, except maybe for Scholz's brief interlude: Axing social systems and handing money to the so-called elites. If anyone spooked the people with reforms, it was Scholz's government. I very deliberately say his government because his ministers did all the work while he, as you said, mainly stood around trying to act "besonnen".
well he might have thought: "Well it worked for Merkel, why not for me too?"
has been happening for the last 20 years
20 years? Did you forget Hartz 4 by Schröder and the Greens?
No, this has been going on for a lot longer.
Actually, while Scholz himself was not presenting exactly like a decisive leader, his government was the most productive we ever had with both the most projects on their to-do list and even being able to start or complete the highest percentage of their own project when compared to previous governments.
Merz is the very opposite of a reformator.
That would be a "deformator", I guess.
Don't let that fool you. Scholz' measured attitude may make him seem passive, but his government was very active in terms of reform. Merz talks a big game, but the main contributions of his government are to revert changes from the previous ones, while also raking up massive debt to support his budget (something that he has actively campaigned against and blocked during Scholz' tenure).
Nah, the thing with Merz is that he more-or-less transparently lied during the campaign, brought in multiple lobbyists as minister, brought in multiple politicians with previous corruption scandals as minister/party whip and now these people are behaving exactly as you think they would. They're trying to do Trump light, and unfortunately they're not totally unsuccessful in that.
Externally, Merz is making pointlessly macho announcements to other countries (and is then often not following up, e.g. along with Macron, he gave an ultimatum for a ceasefire to Putin ... which just passed and was never heard of again). Domestically, Merz continues verbally beating up the poorest while investigating tax cuts for the richest. Dobrindt is making inhumanity and inefficiency at the border cool again, in the process fucking up relations to neighboring countries like Poland. Reiche is evaluating how to fuck solar and wind power to be able to import more fossil gas. Schnieder is investigating how to fuck the cheap-ish national train ticket while making fossil-powered cars and flights cheaper. Now-party whip Spahn, whose corruption led to somewhere between 2.5 and 10bn€ being lost on FFP2 masks since 2021, is tirelessly repeating that he is being prosecuted for nothing and feels zero guilt. And in the past few days, the CxU parliamentary group prevented the election of a constitutional judge because of a right-wing campaign cooking up a bunch of lies about her.
That's a lot of shit, especially given they're just 70 days in office.