Merkel’s Bloc Slumps to Record Low Approval Amid Leadership Race

(Bloomberg) -- Support for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc dropped to its weakest on record, with her party embroiled in a leadership contest and Europe’s largest economy flirting with recession.

If a general election were held this Sunday, Merkel’s CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, would together garner 26%, down one percentage point from a month earlier, according to a survey conducted for ZDF television.

The Greens gained one point in second place to 23%, and could form a government with either the CDU/CSU or with a combination of the Social Democrats and the leftist Linke, which tallied 16% and 8% respectively.

Leaders of the ruling coalition, made up of the CDU/CSU and SPD, will meet Sunday to discuss possible measures to help contain the economic fallout from the coronavirus. The country’s influential industry federation BDI on Thursday warned of recession this year and urged the government to consider stimulus.

Following a political crisis that forced CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to step aside last month, party delegates will elect a new chair at a convention on April 25. Merkel critic Friedrich Merz leads loyalist Armin Laschet with 27% against 24% among all respondents, the ZDF poll showed. Among CDU/CSU voters, Merz has an advantage of 40% to 27%.

The poll by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen surveyed 1,276 people between March 3 and March 5 and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

To contact the reporter on this story: Raymond Colitt in Berlin at rcolitt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Iain Rogers

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