Centre-right coalition partners reach 10-year voter approval low
After bitter defeat in the key North Rhine-Westphalia state poll this month, a new poll showed on Wednesday that Germany's centre-right coalition parties have reached a 10-year low in public approval.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats dropped three points from last week’s ratings to reach just 32 percent of voter support, while her junior coalition partners the pro-business Free Democrats dropped another point to garner just 6 percent, according to the weekly poll by news magazine Stern.
These are the worst levels for both parties since the beginning of 2000, the magazine said.
About six months ago, some 30 percent of Germans polled by the magazine said they believed Merkel’s CDU could best solve Germany’s problems. But following the defeat in Germany’s most populous state, which stripped Merkel's coalition of a majority in the upper house of parliament, just 17 percent said the same in Wednesday’s poll.
Some 43 percent even said they longed for the return of the uneasy “grand coalition” of Merkel’s Christian Democrats and the centre-left Social Democrats, who gained three points to reach 27 percent voter approval.
The environmentalist Green party also inched up one point to reach 16 percent, and the socialist Left party dropped one point to land at 11 percent of voter support.
Research institute Forsa surveyed 2,001 representative German citizens between May10 and May 14, and another 1,006 between May 12 and May 14.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats dropped three points from last week’s ratings to reach just 32 percent of voter support, while her junior coalition partners the pro-business Free Democrats dropped another point to garner just 6 percent, according to the weekly poll by news magazine Stern.
These are the worst levels for both parties since the beginning of 2000, the magazine said.
About six months ago, some 30 percent of Germans polled by the magazine said they believed Merkel’s CDU could best solve Germany’s problems. But following the defeat in Germany’s most populous state, which stripped Merkel's coalition of a majority in the upper house of parliament, just 17 percent said the same in Wednesday’s poll.
Some 43 percent even said they longed for the return of the uneasy “grand coalition” of Merkel’s Christian Democrats and the centre-left Social Democrats, who gained three points to reach 27 percent voter approval.
The environmentalist Green party also inched up one point to reach 16 percent, and the socialist Left party dropped one point to land at 11 percent of voter support.
Research institute Forsa surveyed 2,001 representative German citizens between May10 and May 14, and another 1,006 between May 12 and May 14.
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