Are The Germans Striving For A Change By Replacing Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Berlin; June 2026: All across Germany – a controversial rhetoric has erupted; Widespread criticisms of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in closed WhatsApp groups. Normally, those around a prime minister would refuse to comment on rumours that there are secret plans to replace him or her early. But after one media outlet after another independently confirmed the rumours from their sources in Merz’s ruling conservative party (CDU), the chancellor’s people felt compelled to do so at the end of last week.

Speaking to Media Reporters, an anonymous official close to the chancellor called it “loose speculation” and added that those who spread such rumours are doing the work of the right-wing opposition party (AfD) and weakening the authority of the political centre.

The conservatives who are reportedly talking about replacing Merz with the 20 years younger and far more popular Wüst belong to the party’s leadership, according to German media. But they do not criticise the chancellor openly, writes the newspaper Bild. This only happens with political confidants in closed WhatsApp groups.

But how did the secret discussions about a possible conservative “regicide” even arise? They are the result of “bad opinion polls and the feeling that everything is moving too slowly”, says Diana Zimmermann, head of the Berlin editorial office of the ZDF television station. By bad opinion polls, she refers, among other things, to ZDF’s own “Politibarometer”, which in its latest survey once again shows that Friedrich Merz is historically unpopular as Chancellor.

Only 26% of those surveyed think he is doing well. 71% think he is doing badly. For the second month in a row, Merz’s party has less support than the far-right party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

It has only been a little over a year since Friedrich Merz was elected and promised that he and his Social Democratic coalition partner would now accelerate the economic and social reforms that are the prerequisite for bringing Germany out of several years of economic crisis. But little has happened. And a promise last year of an “autumn of reforms” died before Christmas in internal disputes between conservatives and social democrats over the content and financing of the necessary, fundamental changes to, among other things, the tax and pension systems.

Things are going differently where the man who some dream of replacing Friedrich Merz rules. In North Rhine-Westphalia, with over 18 million inhabitants, 3X as many as Denmark – Hendrik Wüst heads a government consisting of his own conservatives and the Green party.

During the election campaign last winter, Friedrich Merz made the Greens into political whipping boys. But in the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf, Hendrik Wüst’s government is far more popular than Merz’s in Berlin. And Wüst himself is one of Germany’s most popular politicians.

If there were elections in North Rhine-Westphalia now, Hendrik Wüst would secure every third vote for the conservatives. If there were elections to the Bundestag, Friedrich Merz would not even be able to get every fourth.

Political observers generally agree: it may well be that there are people and even leading members of the chancellor’s party who are so nervous about the miserable polls and frustrated by Merz’s lack of political clout that they are fantasizing about having him replaced by Hendrik Wüst.

But they won’t do it. They don’t dare. The risks are too many and too great. And if you want to avoid a destructive and exhausting internal conflict, it also requires that Friedrich Merz himself be prepared to resign. Not many who have followed the stubborn and proud Merz’s long path to the country’s highest office believe this will happen.

But don’t rule it out, warns the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper’s correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia. “If the Merz government does not succeed in turning the tables in the coming months, and Wüst wins the state election in North Rhine-Westphalia in April, the pressure on those involved will grow”, writes Reiner Burger.

If the popular Hendrik Wüst, who once again asserted yesterday, that he has no plans in challenging Friedrich Merz, who can continue to govern successfully with the Green party after his state election in April, and not be dependent on the social democratic SPD like Friedrich Merz in Berlin – even more eyes will be turned to the ‘alternative model’ from Düsseldorf, writes Frankfurter Allgemeine.

Team Maverick.