Support for German Chancellor Merz's CDU/CSU alliance drops to historic low of 18% in new poll

Nationwide support for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU/CSU alliance has collapsed to a historic low following a series of defeats in regional elections, a new poll has suggested.

The bloc’s popular backing stood at just 18%, its worst result in Germany’s postwar history, according to a survey conducted by the INSA polling institution on behalf of Bild.

The poll put the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) at 30%, its highest result since the party was established in 2013. It remains the most popular party in Germany by a wide margin, the poll suggested. The CDU/CSU’s junior coalition partners, the Social Democrats and the Greens are polling at 14% each, and the Left Party is at 10%.

The survey was conducted between September 28 and October 2 among 1,202 eligible voters, with the results published on Saturday.

Support for the CDU/CSU has fallen sharply since Merz took office as chancellor in May 2025. INSA put the bloc at around 30% shortly before he assumed the post, compared with 18% now.

Merz has been described as Germany’s least popular head of government in some 30 years. He came to power following snap elections in February 2025, promising to revive Germany’s struggling economy, but has since poured more money into the military while blaming some of the country’s economic problems on Germans themselves.

He has told citizens to work more and claimed that the “welfare state as we have it today can no longer be financed.” In May, his government announced plans for social spending cuts and unveiled an unpopular pension reform.

The survey also came after the CDU suffered defeats to the AfD in the eastern states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, results Merz described as a “disaster.” The right-wing party won 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt and 38.3% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The CDU finished a distant second in Saxony-Anhalt with 17.5% and failed to clear the electoral threshold in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where it received just 4.9%.

Despite the defeats, Merz maintained he would not change trajectory and will keep focusing on military buildup and antagonizing Moscow. “I will not deviate by a single millimeter from my fundamental conviction that, especially now, we must defend our freedom against Russia,” he stated in early September.

Moscow has repeatedly dismissed Berlin’s claims about an alleged “Russian threat” as “nonsense.”