Majority of Germans welcome fourth-time confirmation of Merkel as chancellor: poll

BERLIN - A majority of Germans are supportive of the re-inauguration of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Angela Merkel in her fourth term as German chancellor, a "Politbarometer" poll published on Friday by the public broadcaster "ZDF" finds.

According to the representative survey, 55 percent of Germans approved of Merkel's renewed assumption of the chancellorship, while 41 percent opposed her re-election.

Supporters of the CDU and Christian Social Union (CSU) were particularly enthusiastic about the prospect of another Merkel cabinet (85 percent). By contrast, a smaller majority of 55 percent of German Social Democrat (SPD) supporters expressed their favourable sentiment in this regard.

A large majority of respondents (70) percent opined that the new "grand coalition" would last a full four-year term in office. If federal elections were held again, 32 percent would currently vote for the CDU/CSU (minus one percentage point) and 19 percent would vote for the SPD (plus two percentage points).

The grand coalition parties were followed in the ranking of electoral support by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) with 13 percent (minus one percentage point), the Green party (Gruene) and Left party (Linke) at twelve percent and eleven percent respectively (both unchanged), and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) at nine percent (plus one percentage point).