Friedrich Merz and the viper

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Photo by Zachary Young on Unsplash

At the start of the year, CDU leader Friedrich Merz warned that entering into coalition with the AfD would be like “having a viper around your neck… at some point it will bite you to death.”

His reasoning appeared to be that joining forces with the hard-right party would give them a platform from which they could launch themselves into becoming the dominant force in German politics.

Six weeks after his election victory, Merz has awoken to find the viper coiled around his neck regardless. A recent opinion poll placed the AfD level with the CDU as the most popular party in the country—each polling at 24 percent.

The overall trend in polling would suggest that it is merely a matter of time before the AfD take the outright lead.

Source: INSA/ Graphic: OPENAI

It’s customary for victorious parties to enjoy a honeymoon period; even the Scholz government managed a few months of goodwill. But the CDU has plunged by five points since the February 23rd election - a feat without precedent in the history of the Federal Republic.

“The CDU/CSU has taken a dramatic tumble. There has never been such a collapse in support between a Bundestag election and the formation of a government,” Hermann Binkert, head of polling firm INSA, told Bild Zeitung.