Roughly one year after the CDU-SPD coalition government took office, a growing majority of Germans are expressing serious concern and dissatisfaction with the direction of the country, according to a representative poll conducted by the INSA institute.
In the weekly survey carried out for Bild am Sonntag, 84 percent of respondents said they had significant or very significant concerns about Germany. Only 11 percent reported having minor worries. Meanwhile, 64 percent of those surveyed stated that no conceivable coalition is capable of solving the country's problems.
When asked who bears responsibility for the government's weakness, 42 percent of respondents blamed both coalition parties equally. However, 37 percent pointed primarily at the CDU/CSU, while 14 percent held the SPD more accountable. Notably, respondents viewed both the CDU/CSU and the SPD as obstructionist parties in equal measure, with each receiving a 50 percent rating as a "blocking party."
A relative majority of Germans surveyed remain opposed to bringing the Alternative for Germany (AfD) into government. While 41 percent of respondents supported ending the so-called "firewall", the political consensus that excludes cooperation with the AfD, 47 percent were against it. Among voters who support the CDU/CSU, opposition to working with the AfD was even more pronounced, with 67 percent rejecting such a partnership.
Among the alternative chancellor candidates presented in the survey, Federal Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) performed best. Twenty-nine percent of respondents said he would be more effective at pushing through reforms than Merz.
CSU leader Markus Söder followed at 25 percent, while North Rhine-Westphalia Minister President Hendrik Wüst received 13 percent support. Thirty-three percent of respondents said none of the proposed alternatives would perform better than Merz.
Should the government's planned major reform projects on taxation and social policy fail, 67 percent of respondents said they would want Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) to be replaced. Even among CDU/CSU voters, 46 percent indicated they would favour a change in leadership under such circumstances.
A clear majority of 74 percent of those polled expressed a desire for citizens to be allowed to vote on important national issues through referendums. Only 17 percent opposed the introduction of nationwide public votes.
The INSA Sonntagstrend survey was conducted between 13 May and 15 May, with 1,001 participants. The stated maximum margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
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