Merz’s conservatives slide in YouGov poll – DW – 02/18/2025

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stressed it was still possible to “confront racist hate,” in a video marking the fifth anniversary of the far-right Hanau shooting attack that left nine people dead near Frankfurt.

“Let’s not leave room for hatred,” Scholz said, adding that he is saddened by how many people write to him or tell him in person that they are afraid of being attacked or coming under suspicion because they come from a migrant background.

He commended the street movement against racism and division, in reference to frequent protests against the far-right, intensifying ahead of this weekend’s vote, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is polling second.

“We can confront the racist hatred that underpinned the murders in Hanau,” he said.

The 2020 shooting caused shock and outrage in Germany, both because serious gun crime remains relatively rare and given the country’s 20th century fascist legacy under Adolf Hitler.

Eight of the victims had a migration background, and one victim was a Romani German citizen. The gunman chose the locations of his attacks because of their popularity among migrant communities. 

The Berlin association of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) published an election poster with a major printing error.

Germany — “Deutschland” in German — was spelled by the AfD without an “l”: Deutschand.

After satirical comments on the Internet were made in response to the misspelling, AfD candidate Michael Gleichmann from Berlin-Köpenick claimed that the whole thing was a “picture puzzle.”

The poster displayed the slogan “Grandchildren against the left”, a spoof of the protest group “Grannies against the right”, which demonstrates nationwide against the far-right AfD.

The AfD later erased a post on the platform X that featured the misspelled poster.

Jan van Aken, one of two co-leaders of Germany’s socialist Left Party, told DW he believed that his message was resonating with young people.

The comments come after a YouGov poll showed the party at 9% support. In previous polls, the Left Party had hovered around the 5% of votes needed to enter parliament.

Van Aken told DW that 18,000 people have joined the party since the start of its campaign for the February 23 Bundestag election.

“And these are all young people who are active, who are now campaigning. So really, no matter where I go in Germany, there is a palpable energy,” he said.

“I haven’t felt that in the party for ten years. And that is now also reflected in the election polls,” he said.

He said that young people were resonating with the party’s message, which he described as “take the money from the rich and give to the poor and needy.”

The party’s second lead candidate, the 36-year-old Heidi Rechinnek, has spearheaded the Left’s campaign on Instagram and TikTok social media platforms in order to court the youth vote.

German financial experts have raised hopes that the economy will improve under a new government following Sunday’s federal election.

According to the Leibniz Center for European Economic Research (ZEW), German investor morale rose more than expected in February. Its economic sentiment index, which tracks expectations for the next six months, climbed to 26.0 points, up from 10.3 points in January — its biggest increase in two years.

“This rising optimism is probably due to hopes for a new German government capable of action,” said ZEW president Achim Wambach.

Thomas Gitzel, chief economist at VP Bank, said the rise in economic expectations underscores recent positive trends, including an increase in manufacturing orders and falling inflation.

“There is therefore good reason to hope that the economy is currently bottoming out and that things will gradually improve from the spring months onwards,” Gitzel said.

At the same time, close observers of Europe’s largest economy do not expect to see dramatic change in the wake of the February 23 vote, which is likely to see conservative leader Friedrich Merz become chancellor.

Two major economic institutes are already forecasting a third year of economic contraction in 2025.

ZEW surveyed 158 analysts and institutional investors for its survey.

Immigration and the economy are the topics that have dominated the political debate in the run-up to the February 23 election.

But what does each party stand for? And what promises have they made to voters?

Check out DW’s guide summarizing the main parties’ campaign platforms.

The CDU/CSU bloc of leading chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz has suffered losses in the latest YouGov poll published Tuesday.

The survey put support for the conservatives at 27%, a drop of two percentage points compared to the previous week. It is their worst YouGov result since August 2023.

The Left Party, meanwhile, was on 9%, an increase of three percentage points. That is their best YouGov result in the current legislative period. YouGov said this change was mainly driven by younger voters.

The AfD remained in second place on 20%, a drop of one point, while support for the SPD of Chancellor Olaf Scholz was up by a point, on 17%.

The Greens remained on 12%. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) also remained unchanged on 5%, as did the business-focused Free Democrats (FDP) on 4%.

Some 2,131 people were surveyed between 14-17 February for the poll.  

According to the pollster, the data is representative of eligible voters in Germany over the age of 18.

The four main candidates for chancellor took questions from the public on live television on Monday night.

Some 5 million people tuned in to watch the town hall-style event. 

When answering questions, Friedrich Merz from the conservative CDU/CSU bloc pledged a tougher stance on welfare payments, more tax relief for citizens and said he would speed up deportations of migrants who are in Germany illegally. 

Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the center-left SPD fielded questions about retirement funds as well as health care and the problem of training, payment and understaffing. He suggested more flexible career choices, higher employment and foreign laborers as a path to financing future pensions.

The chancellor also acknowledged the historical importance of US-German ties, while at the same time accusing US Vice President JD Vance of interfering in Germany’s elections.

Alice Weidel, the candidate for the far-right AfD, claimed that foreigners were driving up crime rates and said she was against illegal migration but interested in integration.

She responded to a question about her party’s opposition to gay marriage by saying she hoped the AfD would seek to make the lives of young people better by providing economic opportunity. Weidel herself is in a same-sex relationship.

Finally, the Greens chancellor candidate Robert Habeck fielded questions about the high cost of upgrading energy infrastructure.

He pointed to the war in Ukraine and rising energy prices, and said his party had advanced initiatives to trim Germany’s bureaucracy. He also acknowledged that one of the biggest mistakes of the current government was failing to invest enough in long-term structural funding.

There are just five days to go until the federal election on February 23, when German voters decide who will run their next government.

DW will keep track of the main stories on the campaign trail and answer your most pressing questions.

On Tuesday, conservative chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz is set to campaign in the eastern cities of Halle and Potsdam, while incumbent center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz travels to Oldenburg and Emden in the Germany’s northeast.