Merkel Successor’s Sinking Popularity Opens Door to Challengers
- Poll ranks German chancellor’s nemesis as best CDU candidate
- Support for Christian Democrats, Greens drops in weekly survey
Angela Merkel
Photographer: Jeenah Moon/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s successor as head of Germany’s governing party slumped in a poll, opening the door to a renewed leadership challenge by one of her biggest antagonists.
Friedrich Merz, who has support among the Christian Democratic Union’s business wing and social conservatives, polled 31% support in an Emnid survey asking who would be the best CDU candidate to run for chancellor. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, whom Merkel backed in her bid for the party leadership in 2018, tallied 19% in the poll of 505 people.