German poll finds 45% want snap elections if Merz resigns

Nearly half of German voters would favor snap national elections if Chancellor Friedrich Merz resigns, according to a new INSA poll published Tuesday.

If Merz left office, 45% of respondents said they wanted a new national vote. Another 31% said his conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the center-left SPD should use their majority in parliament to elect a successor.

Pressure on Merz has grown after his CDU suffered heavy losses in three state elections this month. The chancellor has said he will not step down and will press ahead with reforms, but speculation about his future has continued in German media.

Asked whom they would favor as a possible successor, 20% named CSU leader and Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder. North Rhine-Westphalia’s conservative Premier Hendrik Wuest was named by 14%, and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt by 6%.

In INSA’s latest survey, the anti-immigrant AfD reached 29.5%, the highest national figure the institute has recorded for the party. Merz’s CDU/CSU alliance stood at 19.5%, opening a 10-point gap that is also an INSA record.

The SPD and environmentalist Greens were each at 13.5%. The Left Party stood at 10.5%. The liberal FDP was at 4.5% and the left-populist BSW at 3.5%, both below the 5% threshold needed to enter Germany’s parliament.

The poll followed a string of state election setbacks this month. The AfD topped the vote in two eastern states, Merz’s CDU failed for the first time to enter a state parliament, and the Left Party finished first in Berlin. Merz called the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern result “a deep turning point” and “a severe blow,” but said he would remain CDU chair and chancellor and that the federal coalition with the SPD would continue.