Germany 2025: Chancellor Mertz's popularity continues to decline

In 2025, the Red-Green-Yellow coalition in Germany collapsed, and Germany held early parliamentary elections on February 23. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) emerged as the winner. The CDU, Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) formed a coalition, and CDU chairman Friedrich Merz replaced SPD Chancellor Scholz, becoming the new German Chancellor on May 6. Therefore, 2025 is the first year of the CDU, CSU, and SPD coalition government.

After taking office, Mertz made several moves in domestic affairs. The Interior Ministry immediately sent signals to tighten immigration policies. Border checks became stricter than before. The number of refugees applying for asylum to enter Germany decreased, and the government's repatriation efforts were stronger than those of the previous government, but overall refugee immigration continued to rise. According to media reports, more than 100,000 people have already come to Germany this year for family reunification. Immigration issues remain a topic of public concern in Germany.

Safety issues also remained under scrutiny. On January 22, a 28-year-old Afghan man who had an obligation to leave Germany committed a knife attack in Aschaffenburg, southern Germany, killing a German man and a Moroccan child. After his arrest, the court found that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. In the days before Christmas 2024, a terrorist attack occurred at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, resulting in six deaths. During Merkel's tenure, a Christmas market in Berlin was also attacked by terrorists, and the security of Christmas markets thus became a topic of concern. Now, German Christmas markets generally use large concrete blocks to prevent vehicle-borne terrorist attacks.

When Mertz took office, the debt brake mechanism was intensely discussed. However, the new government quickly introduced new regulations making the debt brake mechanism ineffective in many areas, allowing the government to borrow heavily to modernize the armed forces or make necessary infrastructure investments. At the same time, Mertz sent signals to enhance military capabilities and readiness. By the end of 2025, the German Bundestag passed the government's proposal, allowing compulsory conscription again in Germany, despite the fact that voluntary enlistment still fell short of requirements.

Economically, those who had hoped for Mertz now experienced the pain of disappointment. Germany's economy continued to decline. On December 15, German television channel One reported, "The profit levels of German car manufacturers are lower than the lowest level since the financial crisis. Experts call it a perfect storm for the German automotive industry. Moreover, there are no signs of improvement in 2026." In December, another wave of business closures hit Germany. On December 18, the newspaper "Handelsblatt" reported: According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Germany's growth potential is increasingly weakening.

In foreign policy, Mertz sent signals supporting Ukraine and moving closer to the United States, while maintaining a cold stance toward China, often criticizing China when mentioning it. By the end of the year, Mertz's signals of support for Ukraine became even stronger. On December 14 and 15, Mertz hosted a Ukrainian peace negotiation meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, inviting representatives from the U.S., Ukraine, the EU, and multiple European countries to attend the talks, highlighting his ambition to lead Europe. However, Russian President Putin clearly will not play by his rules on the Ukraine issue. Additionally, the United States under Trump is no longer the reliable elder brother it used to be. By the end of the year, Mertz faced two setbacks in leading European affairs, and his ambition to lead Europe was twice thwarted. First, his call for the EU to use frozen Russian funds to help rebuild Ukraine did not succeed. Second, he supported the EU's agreement on the Southern Common Market, but the signing of the agreement was delayed due to Italy's demands.

Mertz turned 70 this year. Since taking office, his popularity has been continuously declining. By year-end, surveys showed that nearly 70% of citizens were dissatisfied with the government's performance. On December 21, the German editorial network reported: According to the average value obtained by the editorial network from the latest "Sunday Questionnaire" polls conducted by major polling institutions such as Forsa and Infratest dimap, the strongest party in Germany is the Alternative for Germany (AfD), with an average support rate of 25.8% over the past ten polls. The CDU/CSU alliance came second with 25.1% support, followed by the SPD (14.1%), the Greens (11.6%), and the Left Party (10.7%).

The German "BILD AM SONNTAG" on December 21 depicted Mertz's political situation at the end of 2025. The newspaper wrote: Like a boxer who had taken two heavy blows, Mertz entered the Christmas holiday with injuries: first, as "foreign minister," he failed in Brussels — his plan to use frozen Russian state assets to finance aid to Ukraine for the next few years did not succeed. Just hours later, he also suffered a defeat as chairman of the CDU, failing to back his candidate Gunter Krings to defeat Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in the chairmanship of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. On the issue of "hundreds of billions of Russian funds," Mertz made a series of confusing strategic mistakes. He hastily pushed his own plan without coordinating with the most important EU participants, and immediately - entirely a Merkel-style approach - declared it as "no alternative." Subsequently, the chancellery apparently misinterpreted the silence of most EU countries as support, and ignored Belgium's concerns, which in fact had been endorsed by the European Central Bank and several renowned legal scholars and financial experts. The result was disastrous: the chancellor temporarily forgot about his claim for leadership in Europe. Italian Prime Minister Meloni voiced what many people thought — "healthy reason" finally prevailed, which was a devastating verdict on the German chancellor's plan.

Source: rfi

Original: toutiao.com/article/1852314426064968/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.