Episode

Why is Chancellor Merz so unpopular — and is it fair?

Podcast: DW Berlin Briefing - Inside German politics
Published: Apr 24, 2026
Duration seconds: 2181
Processing state: not_requested
Canonical source: https://www.dw.com/en/why-is-chancellor-merz-so-unpopular-and-is-it-fair/audio-76917949?maca=en-podcast_Berlin_Briefing-42113-xml-mrss
Audio: https://radiodownloaddw-a.akamaihd.net/Events/podcasts/en/42113_podcast_Berlin_Briefing/DDB372AD_2-podcast-42113-76917949.mp3
JSON: /v1/public/podcasts/dw-berlin-briefing-inside-german-politics-7077761/episodes/why-is-chancellor-merz-so-unpopular-and-is-it-fair
Markdown: /podcast/dw-berlin-briefing-inside-german-politics-7077761/why-is-chancellor-merz-so-unpopular-and-is-it-fair.md

Actions

POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/dw-berlin-briefing-inside-german-politics-7077761/episodes/why-is-chancellor-merz-so-unpopular-and-is-it-fair/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/dw-berlin-briefing-inside-german-politics-7077761/why-is-chancellor-merz-so-unpopular-and-is-it-fair.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

Germany’s chancellor tops the wrong rankings: approval is at a record low and the AfD has overtaken the CDU/CSU in some polls. But do polls really capture Friedrich Merz’s performance? In this episode, DW Berlin Bureau chief Maximilian Hofmann speaks with DW Chief Political Editor Michaela Küfner, Dr. Roland Abold from polling institute infratest dimap and Berlin-based French journalist Luc André.