Politics
Merkel’s Popularity Surge Puts German Greens on the Back Foot
- Chancellor’s party surged ahead in polls during the pandemic
- Germany faces first post-Merkel general election next year
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The Greens are struggling to sustain their momentum as Covid-19 upends German politics.
The party led the polls in Germany last year but their rise has been arrested by the resurgence of the Christian Democrats, boosted by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s measured handling of the pandemic. With an election due next year, the Greens have slipped back below 20%, barely half the level of Merkel’s CDU-led bloc, and Co-Chairman Robert Habeck, once tied as the nation’s most popular politician, now ranks a distant seventh.