High approval rating for Pistorius: According to survey, Scholz should make way for him

Berlin - According to a survey, around two thirds of German citizens (67 percent) are in favor of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (66, SPD) renouncing his candidacy for Chancellor in the next Bundestag elections in favor of Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (64, SPD).

According to a representative survey conducted by the opinion research institute Forsa for the RTL/ntv "Trendbarometer", only 21% think that Scholz should run for chancellor again.

In the eastern German states, 62% were in favor of Scholz not running again.

In western Germany, the figure is 68 percent. Of the SPD voters surveyed in the previous Bundestag election, 63% were in favor of Scholz not running again.

Following the nomination of CDU leader Friedrich Merz (68) as the CDU and CSU candidate for chancellor, four percent of voters from other parties now want to vote for the CDU/CSU.

According to Forsa, this could increase the CDU/CSU's share of the vote from the current 32% to a maximum of 35%.

For the survey, 1001 people in Germany were questioned on September 20 and 23. Forsa stated the margin of error as +/- three percentage points. Election polls are generally subject to uncertainty.

They only reflect public opinion at the time of the survey. They are not forecasts of the election outcome.