A survey has shown that just 30% of people in Germany want the coalition government to continue. Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian demonstrators are to hold a march in Berlin to mark Nakba Day. DW has more.
The YouGov survey conducted for the weekly Welt am Sonntag showed that 38% would like new elections after the coalition's dissolution, while 9% would want a minority government of Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) to stay at the helm.
Altogether, 30% of respondents are in favor of the coalition continuing, with 24% undecided or responding with "don't know." The survey shows a divide in popularity ratings for the coalition between eastern and western German states, with 46% of people in eastern Germany wanting its end as compared with 35% in western Germany.
Just 22% in eastern Germany wanted the coalition, which took office in May last year, to stay on, compared with 31% in western Germany.
Merz, who himself has received popularity ratings as low as 16% in recent polls, admitted on Friday that the coalition could do with fewer internal disputes.
"Maybe we are currently fighting a bit too much and are not delivering enough results. That may be possible," he told an audience at the 104th German Catholic Day in the southern city of Würzburg.
Merz's government have struggled to find common ground on a number of issues, including on social security and labor reforms, energy policy and, most recently, ways to cushion consumers from spiralling costs due to the Iran war .
Merz's first year marked by coalition tensions, AfD gains To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video https://p.dw.com/p/5DphU Skip next section Welcome to our coverage 05/16/2026 May 16, 2026 Welcome to our coverage Timothy Jones | Karl Sexton Editor The DW newsroom in Bonn says guten Tag and willkommen to its readers at the start of this spring weekend.
The coalition government is, admittedly, unlikely to be feeling any of the joyous emotions normally associated with the season amid its falling popularity ratings.
We look at a survey showing that almost half of people in Germany would, in fact, rather not have it lead the country.
The increasingly popular far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) might well be basking in the praise it has just received from a Kremlin envoy, however.
And in an interesting reflection of the current global security situation, one of the country's top carmakers has said it might be ready to turn to producing arms rather than luxury limousines if the situation requires it.
You can read more about these and other stories making headlines in Germany in this blog.
