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
Black-red coalition
The Conservatives black combined with the traditional red of the political left 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 first from 1966-69 and most recently for eight years until 2021, led by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Image: Odermann/IMAGO
Black and Green
The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has teamed up with the ecologist Greens in several German states cooperating smoothly at the regional level. On the national level the two parties see eye to eye especially on strong support for Ukraine. They disagree on nuclear and renewable energy, and many conservatives despise the Greens for their multicultural and "woke" positions.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Black, Red, Green — like Kenya's flag
The center-right CDU/CSU could also team up with the Greens and the center-left SPD. This three-way coalition would be an option for a comfortable majority. It has been tested on a regional level: The eastern German state of Saxony was governed by such a coalition until 2024.
Image: Fotolia/aaastocks
The Germany coalition — Black, Red and Yellow
The neoliberal FDP has been a junior coalition partner to both the center-right CDU/CSU and the center-left SPD. A three-way coalition was forged on the state level, for example in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. While this combination was touted as a possibility ahead of the 2025 vote, the FDP failed to get into parliament, ruling it out from any coalition building.
Image: Hoffmann/Caro/picture alliance
'Traffic light' coalition — Red, Yellow, Green
From 2021-2025 Germany was governed by a center-left coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), ecologist Greens, and free-market-oriented neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), whose color is yellow. The government known as "Ampel" (traffic light) in Germany, started out as a self-declared "Fortschrittskoalition" (progress coalition) but got mired in infighting and became the least popular government ever.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J.Büttner
'Jamaica' option — black, yellow and green
A three-way combination of Christian Democrats (CDU), the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), has been tested at a regional level. But the FDP and Greens described their positions as irreconcilable following the collapse of the center-left government in November 2024. With the FDP's defeat in the 2025 election it will not be an option on the national level for the foreseeable future
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb
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
Blackberry Coalition
CDU (black), SPD (red) and BSW (violet). The new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance's (BSW) color violet, seems 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 did so well in the eastern German states that it entered a coalition government with the SPD and CDU in the state of Thuringia.
Image: Colourbox
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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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