STERN survey
38 percent of Germans see Hendrik Wüst as a suitable candidate for chancellor
Hendrik Wüst shows Friedrich Merz the way: the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and the head of the CDU at the summer festival of the largest federal state in Berlin. On the outside, they looked very harmonious. Internally, the fight for the Union’s chancellor candidacy has begun.
© Bernd Elmenthaler / Imago Images
The next federal election is not due until 2025, but the battle for the top candidate is already underway in the Union. Hendrik Wüst puts Friedrich Merz under pressure, but he still lacks the necessary awareness for federal politics.
According to his own statement, Hendrik Wüst sees his tasks as prime minister in North Rhine-Westphalia as “current”, but has not ruled out a candidate for chancellor for the Union in the 2025 election. Unlike those of the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz, his poll values are considered good. A new Forsa survey commissioned by the star now provides more detailed information. After that, Wüst still lacks a nationwide profile: 23 percent of Germans say they don’t know him. For comparison: In North Rhine-Westphalia, only 8 percent say so. After all, 38 percent of Germans consider Wüst to be a suitable candidate for chancellor, 30 percent don’t see it that way, and 9 percent express no opinion.
45 percent of voters from the CDU/CSU consider Wüst to be a suitable candidate for chancellor, while 26 percent don’t see it that way. The prime minister, who leads a black-green coalition in Düsseldorf, scores almost as well among supporters of the Greens: 42 percent of them think Wüst is suitable, 26 percent don’t. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the largest federal state, Wüst has a clear home advantage: 46 percent have a positive opinion of him, but 36 percent also consider him unsuitable as a candidate for chancellor. The enthusiasm for the man from the Münsterland in the east is significantly lower: In the new federal states, 33 percent consider Wüst suitable, 29 percent unsuitable – and there even 29 percent say that they don’t know him at all.
The data was collected by the market and opinion research institute forsa for the RTL Group Germany on June 22 and 23, 2023. Database: 1008 respondents. Statistical error tolerance: +/- 3 percentage points