German's Merz faces mounting woes

AFTER just six months in power, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition is facing infighting, policy deadlock and sliding poll ratings, undermining its efforts to take on the rising far right.

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It marks a difficult start for the conservative politician who ran on bold pledges of reviving the stagnant economy, overhauling the threadbare military and toughening immigration policy after years of drift under the previous government.

In German postwar politics, “there has never been such widespread dissatisfaction with a government in such a short period of time”, Manfred Guellner, director of the Forsa polling institute, said.

For Germans who hoped for more decisive leadership after the last government’ collapse, “their expectations have been dashed”, he said.

The winners of February’s general election, Merz’s centre-right CDU/CSU bloc now find themselves neck-and-neck in the polls with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which came second in the poll and is now the largest opposition party.