Who do the Germans want as the Union’s candidate for chancellor in the next federal election? The trial between Söder, Wüst and Merz is extremely close, reveals a survey for t-online.
It is not until autumn of this year that the Union’s top leaders want to decide who will contest the upcoming federal election as a candidate for chancellor. But the fight over the so-called K question has already begun behind the scenes.
The not undisputed CDU chairman Friedrich Merz was recently confirmed in his office at the CDU party conference with around 90 percent approval; Nevertheless, both the CSU chairman and Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder and the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, are said to have ambitions to run for chancellor. The Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Daniel Günther, and the Prime Minister of Hesse, Boris Rhein, are also given outsider chances.
Söder has a wafer-thin nose in front
A lot can still happen between now and autumn. An exclusive Civey survey commissioned by t-online shows who German citizens would most like to see as the Union’s candidate for chancellor. Accordingly, 20 percent of those surveyed said they preferred Markus Söder as the Union’s candidate for chancellor. Close behind are Hendrik Wüst with 19 percent of the vote and CDU leader Merz (18 percent).
Daniel Günther follows with 12 percent, while Boris Rhein is far behind and only wins three percent of the vote. 28 percent of those surveyed chose neither man.
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The comparison between the genders also remains similarly close: Here too, Söder is ahead among both men and women with 20 percent. Among men, however, he has to share first place with Wüst, who also received 20 percent of the men’s votes, but slipped to third place among women with 17 percent.
Merz ranks closely behind the two prime ministers with 19 percent among men, while he comes in second place among women with 18 percent. Remarkable, since Merz is regularly said to be unpopular, especially among women. Günther follows with 13 percent among men and eleven percent among women; Rhine received three percent of the vote.
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Larger differences are becoming visible between the new and old federal states. There is no clear favorite among West Germans: both Söder, Merz and Wüst have 20 percent approval. Günther follows with 11 percent and Rhine far behind with three percent.
In the East, Söder can stand out from his competitors and remains the most popular potential candidate for chancellor here with 20 percent. Behind him is Wüst with 15 percent and Günther with 13 percent. The CDU chairman and therefore actually a natural candidate, Merz, can only get twelve percent of the votes; Rhine follows with two percent. However, the new survey should make Merz positive; in a previously conducted survey, Merz was still far behind his colleagues Söder and Wüst with 14 percent approval.
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Civey surveyed around 5,000 German citizens aged 18 and over online for t-online from May 7th to May 10th, 2024. The exact question was: “Which of these Union politicians would you think would be most suitable as a candidate for chancellor?” The answer options were: “Markus Söder”, “Hendrik Wüst”, “Friedrich Merz”, “Daniel Günther”, “Boris Rhein”, “None of those mentioned/don’t know”. The results are representative due to quotas and weighting, taking into account the statistical error of 2.5 percentage points in the overall result. The error rate may be higher for subgroups.
