A survey shows nearly two-thirds of voters want to pull the plug on Germany's ruling coalition. The poll comes immediately after figures that show most Germans are unhappy with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his government.
The FDP's Christian Lindner, the SPD's Olaf Scholz, and Green co-leaders Annalena Baerbock and Robert HabeckImage: Michael Kappeler/dpa/picture alliance
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As many as 64% of Germans who answered in the survey released on Saturday said a change of government would make the country a better place.
The poll, for the mass-circulation newspaper Bild, comes the day after a separate survey found that most Germans were dissatisfied with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the coalition.
What else did the poll show?
Only 22% of those surveyed by the polling agency INSA said they thought an election would not benefit Germany.
Pollsters also asked about the so-called "traffic light" coalition of center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP). Voters were asked how it measured up against Chancellor Angela Merkel's "Grand Coalition" of conservative Christian Democrats/Christian Socialists (CDU/CSU) and the SPD.
Germany's colorful coalition shorthand
Foreign flags and even traffic lights are used to describe the various coalitions that emerge in German elections. Coalitions are common under Germany's proportional representation system.
Image: Getty Images
'Traffic light' coalition — Red, Yellow, Green
Since 2021 Germany has been governed by a center-left coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), ecologist Greens, and free-market-oriented neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), whose color is yellow. They started out as a self-declared "Fortschrittskoalition" (progress coalition) but got mired in infighting along the way.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J.Büttner
Black-red coalition
The Conservative's black combined with transformative red is the color code when the Christian Democrats govern in a "grand coalition" with the Social Democrats. This combination of Germany's two big tent parties, was in power for eight years until 2021, led by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Image: picture-alliance/R. Goldmann
'Pizza Connection' — precursor to Black and Green
When Bonn was still Germany's capital, conservative and Greens lawmakers started meeting informally in an Italian restaurant, in what became known as the 'Pizza Connection.' At the regional level, Baden-Württemburg's Greens-CDU coalition has governed since 2016 and Germany's most populous state of North-Rhine Westphalia has had a Black-Green government since 2022.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
'Jamaica' option — black, yellow and green
A three-way deal between the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats FDP), whose color is yellow did not come about at national level in 2017 after the FDP called off talks. It has been tested at a state level, where Schleswig-Holstein had a "Jamaica" government until they went Black-Green in 2022.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb
Black, Red, Green — like Kenya's flag
The eastern German state of Saxony has been governed by a coalition of CDU, SPD and Greens, headed by the state's popular Premier Michael Kretschmer. He is hoping to be able to stay in power despite the rise of the right-wing extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD) which is campaigning on an anti-immigrant and anti-NATO agenda.
Image: Fotolia/aaastocks
The Germany coalition — Black, Red and Yellow
The eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt has been governed by a coalition led by the CDU's popular Premier Rainer Haseloff. He has teamed up with the SPD and the FDP. The alliance of unlikely bedfellows was the only viable option to ward off the threat by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Image: Hoffmann/Caro/picture alliance
Black and Orange
Since 2018 Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) has been governing with the Free Voters (FV), whose color is Orange. The FV is a grass-roots populist and far-right-leaning party and is led by its controversial chairman Hubert Aiwanger. Strong in rural areas of southern and eastern Germany, the Freie Wähler is seeking a larger role at the national level and currently has three MEPs.
Image: Privat
Violet and Black?
In graphics showing opinion polls, the new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) is shown in violet. That may be fitting, as it combines socialist, far-left (red) with populist right wing (blue) ideas in its platform. Although the party was only founded in 2024, it is doing so well in the eastern German states that it may well be asked to join coalition governments. Possibly led by the CDU (Black).
Image: Oliver Berg/dpa/picture alliance
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Only 10% said the current coalition was doing better, with 49% viewing it as worse. Some 28% said the result was mixed depending on policy areas.
More bad news for coalition
A day earlier, the "Politbarometer" poll published by Germany's Forschungsgruppe Wahlen (Elections Research Group) on behalf of the public broadcaster ZDF also showed voter dissatisfaction with Scholz.
It found that 51% were unhappy with his performance in office and that 58% thought the government was doing a poor job.
One silver lining for the chancellor was that just over half of Germans thought a government led by the opposition conservatives would not do any better.
There was historically weak support for Scholz's SPD, too. Only 19% said they would vote for the party if an election was imminent, with the Greens on 15% and the FDP on 7%.
The CDU/CSU bloc scored 26% voter support in the poll, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) mustered 19%.
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Far-right issues election war cry
AfD leader Tino Chrupalla on Saturday said his party had the CDU/CSU firmly in its sights, with the AfD's voter share having risen from 10.3% in the 2021 general election to as high as 21% in recent months.
"CDU leader Friedrich Merz wanted to halve us," said Chrupulla, referring to Merz's 2018 claim that his party would soundly fend off the AfD's challenge from the right. "Instead, we have doubled," the politician told a conference for the party's branch in the northern state of Lower Saxony.
"We have to halve the CDU," he added, also taking a swipe at the Greens as "the most dangerous party" that would have to be vanquished.
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