Nearly half of Germans expect Merz to resign by the end of the year – poll

Almost half of Germans expect Chancellor Friedrich Merz to leave office by the end of the year, according to a YouGov poll. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports this, UNN writes.

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According to the poll, 48% of the 1,611 adults surveyed believe that Merz will no longer be chancellor by the end of the year, 31% expect him to remain in office, and 21% did not provide an answer.

Merz, whose approval rating has fallen significantly in recent months, faces the risk of another humiliating defeat in elections this Sunday, when two eastern states will vote—just two weeks after the far-right "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) secured a convincing victory in Saxony-Anhalt.

The elections in Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD surged to nearly 44% of the vote while Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) plunged to 17%, have sparked serious debate over whether the chancellor could be forced to resign.

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Recent polls put the CDU at around 7% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, dangerously close to the 5% threshold required to enter parliament. If confirmed, this would be the CDU's worst result in any of Germany's 16 federal states or at the national level since World War II.

In Berlin, the Left party is slightly ahead of the CDU, leaving the conservatives at risk of losing control of the office of the governing mayor of the German capital.

However, as the publication notes, Merz is doing everything possible to suppress rumors about his future, stressing after the elections in Saxony-Anhalt that "giving up is not an option for me."

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