Merkel Is Way Too Popular for a Lame Duck
The German chancellor’s enduring support is a testament to her authenticity.
She who laughs longest.
Photographer: Michael Urban/DDP/AFP via Getty Images
This month’s edition of the ARD-DeutschlandTrend poll, one of the longest-running and most authoritative political opinion surveys in Germany, names Angela Merkel as the nation’s most popular politician. Satisfaction with her work is 6 percentage points up from the previous month despite the seeming fragility of the indecisive and fractious government she leads, nonexistent economic growth, and a marked lack of German leadership in international affairs.
Merkel’s enduring popularity — a majority of Germans has been satisfied with her work almost throughout her almost 170-month tenure, the second longest run after Helmut Kohl’s 193 months — is a phenomenon that defies every current political trend in democratic societies. While Germany as a country hasn’t escaped these trends, such as political fragmentation and anti-establishment protest, during the Merkel era, she herself has withstood their onslaught like a rock at the bottom of a rapid stream.