The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) recently suffered heavy losses in two state elections, according to preliminary figures. Following the result, a poll revealed that the majority of Germans do not believe Armin Laschet is the right man for Chancellor.

Majority of Germans against Laschet for Chancellor

Following the state election results, which resulted in historically poor results for the CDU party, a survey by pollster Civey asked 5.080 Germans: “In view of the CDU election results in the state elections, is Armin Laschet the right candidate for Chancellor of the Union?" 73,5 percent of respondents indicated they did not think Laschet was the right candidate to replace Angela Merkel, with only 14,7 percent answering “more or less yes” or “yes, definitely.”

Laschet doesn’t have much support from CDU voters either, with 72,5 percent of people intending to vote for the CDU responding that they did not think Laschet was the right person for the position of chancellor. Only 16,4 percent of CDU voters thought Laschet was the right candidate.

CDU routed in the regional polls

The Christian Democratic Union scored its worst results ever in Sunday's state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The poor performance has been blamed on public dissent regarding Germany’s vaccine programme, the delay of mass rapid testing and the persistently high infection numbers despite several lockdowns.

The CDU also faced public outrage after it was revealed that lawmakers reportedly profited from deals involving the procurement of protective facemasks during the early days of coronavirus in Germany.

Markus Söder, the head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, said that the result was a “wake up call” for the ruling coalition and, with the general election just six months away, called on the party to prove it can “govern well and reliably” and offer a vision for the future.