The survey for Capital magazine of 750 top politicians and executives carried out in late May and early June showed a sharp deterioration in the centre-right chancellor’s image, largely in step with her declining fortunes in broader opinion polls.
A damning poll of leading German decision-makers with 92% voicing disappointment in Angela Merkel's government piled pressure on the chancellor after a slew of criticism from politicians and media and poor polls.
The survey for Capital magazine of 750 top politicians and executives carried out in late May and early June showed a sharp deterioration in the centre-right chancellor’s image, largely in step with her declining fortunes in broader opinion polls.
More than three quarters believe her coalition government is too weak to confront the current crisis and half consider Merkel herself a weak leader an increase of 25 points on the last survey in December 2009.
The survey result is particularly damning as more than 80% of those polled see the economy sustaining its present upswing but 69% are unhappy with the government’s economic policies compared to 37% in December.
The chancellor is already under fire from members of her own government of conservatives and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) over an austerity drive announced a week ago, and faces an unexpected challenge to get her presidential candidate elected.
Several German and foreign papers say her government is in crisis as the mounting list of problems, including tackling the Euro zone crisis, give the impression she is not in control.
The government is at an end. But it does not have the strength to resign nor is it being challenged by an opposition willing to govern, wrote Mike Hanke, a columnist in business daily Handelsblatt who often takes a negative view of Merkel.
Other less critical newspapers acknowledged that there is already talk of whether Germany needs new elections even though Merkel only began her second term, at the head of a new centre-right coalition, in October last year.
Uphill task
The main opposition Social Democrats have called for fresh elections while the Greens want Merkel to subject her austerity package to a confidence vote in parliament, casting doubt on her ability to win the support of her majority in the lower house.
If Merkel called and lost a confidence vote on the budget, it could trigger a new election. One poll this weekend suggested 55% of Germans do not think her coalition will last the course until 2013, prompting government calls for unity.
Merkel lost her majority in the upper house via defeat in a regional election in North Rhine Westphalia in May where her new Free Democrat coalition ally weighed down her own conservative Christian Democrats, whose own popularity is on the wane.
The budget cuts, touted as Germany’s biggest austerity drive since World War Two, were partly designed to stamp her authority on the government but polls suggest they are seen as socially inequitable and unlikely to deliver the savings promised.
Tens of thousands of Germans protested against them this weekend.
Weakened by the resignation of president Horst Koehler in May, Merkel now faces an uphill task getting her own candidate to replace him elected on June 30 by a special assembly where she technically has a majority.
But some in her coalition prefer the opposition’s Joachim Gauck, a popular activist from East Germany who fought communist rule, over her own choice Christian Wulff.
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