While the week may have brought good news on the international stage for Germany’s chancellor, the latest polls raise concerns that it may be too little, too late.
If you’ve spent the week following international events, it may appear as if Chancellor Friedrich Merz is on something of a winning streak.
At the G7 summit in France, Germany helped secure a rare display of unity with Washington, while tensions in the Middle East began to ease and Western allies rallied behind a more coordinated stance on Ukraine.
Seen in isolation, this represents the kind of diplomatic progress any German government would welcome.
And yet domestically, Merz's conservative party of Christian Democrats (CDU) is struggling. The political conversation in Germany continues to revolve around the stubborn popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), while the CDU has seen support dwindle even further.
