Elections, five key issues facing Germany's next chancellor

German citizens will head to the polls on Sunday, after an unexpectedly short election campaign marked by a fierce debate over immigration, security and a continued weak economic outlook.

The leader of the largest opposition party, the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz, appears poised to be the country's next chancellor according to recent polls, the Telegraph reports.

With about 30 percent of the vote to be counted, Merz signaled that he would be open to forming a coalition with current Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) or the Greens.

Regardless of the winner, the person in charge will face not only a changing foreign policy climate, but also a public at home concerned about five key issues, according to a Gallup report seen by Euronews.

Deep dissatisfaction with living standards

Germans are now more dissatisfied with their living standards than at any time since the 2008 financial crisis.

The percentage of Germans who said their financial situation was improving fell sharply from 42 percent in 2023 to 27 in 2024, according to Gallup.

Their dissatisfaction makes them one of the least optimistic countries about their standard of living in the European Union, along with Austria and Greece.

Their weak expectations match experts' forecasts for Germany's economy, which shrank for the second year in a row in 2024. Germany, once an economic powerhouse, is forecast to be the bloc's weakest performer in 2025.

Politicians from across the political spectrum have risen to the occasion to propose policies that could pull Germany out of its economic slump, including cutting excessive bureaucracy and lowering high electricity prices.

Housing crisis

Dissatisfaction with affordable housing has gradually increased over the past 15 years, with Germans evenly split between being satisfied and dissatisfied with the availability of affordable housing in their local area for the first time since 2006.

Germans are not alone in Europe in becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of affordable housing, however Gallup notes that the decline in satisfaction in Germany is particularly sharp – from 73 percent in 2010 to 47 in 2024.

The government has fallen behind in its ambitious efforts to build 400,000 new affordable homes a year, held back by high interest rates and construction costs.

The problem is particularly acute in big cities – like Berlin – where competition for homes has caused prices to skyrocket compared to a decade ago.

Hardened attitudes towards immigrants

A string of attacks in which the suspect was a migrant has pushed immigration to the forefront of Germany's election campaign.

Merz has attracted controversy by agreeing to work with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to push measures tightening migration policies through parliament.

However, most parties have shifted to the right and promised stronger controls on immigration.

Their policies align with public opinion, with Gallup finding that Germans' acceptance of immigrants has fluctuated in recent years, but fell in 2023.

Of several major European economies, including France and Italy, Germany is the only country where migrant admissions are significantly lower than they were in 2016 - a year after the government took in thousands of asylum seekers.

Less trust in government

Although Germans' trust in institutions like the military and the judicial system has been stable over recent years, their confidence in the national government has fallen to its lowest point in more than a decade.

Germany has consistently outperformed the rest of Europe in trust in government. However, this year, public trust in government is no longer exceptional and is now split down the middle – reaching just 50 percent in 2024.

In contrast, trust in former Chancellor Angela Merkel's government in her penultimate year as leader was 65 percent.

A decline in trust in the government coincides with the collapse of Scholz's tough three-party coalition - which fell apart spectacularly in November after Scholz fired his Finance Minister, Christian Lindner.

More leadership

The image of German leadership has taken a hit domestically, as well as among other Europeans, with a notable drop from an average of 60 percent to 54 in the past 12 months alone.

Slovenia, Norway and Finland are particularly skeptical of Germany's leadership, with approval ratings having fallen by at least 10 percentage points since 2023.

Merz has proposed restoring Germany's leading position in the EU, saying on a panel discussion on Saturday that he was "ready" to restore what allies have said was a lack of German leadership within the bloc.

"I see that Germany is in a strategic position at the center of Europe, that so many things in Europe depend on Germany," Merz said. /Telegraph