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Just as a note, Merz is likely the most unpopular and worst chancellor that Germany has ever seen.
Ever?
I mean, the chancellor youβre referring to was only chancellor for a brief time and then gave Germany the d (as in dictator)
And not so unpopular during his stay in power.
What has he dont thats bad? He seems ok from the outside.
He continuously questions the wellfare state of Germany, which most of us are very proud of. Unemployment benefits will get stricter rules. He says 14.5 sick days per worker and year are an unacceptably high number and we should ask ourselves if that is really necessary. He calls immigrants a problem for our cityscapes. Every foreign visit he went on he insulted the host country in some other way. He and his party argue for reactivation of our nuclear power plants for "cheap" energy, but all the former operators of those plants say it would be uneconomical or downright impossible to do and thr kWh would be way more expensive than renewables. They also ask Germany and the german economy to be "open for different technologies" when it comes to the decarbonising the country but the race has been won by BEV and heat pumps, no amount of H2 research will change that. He calls himself upper middle class despite having a private plane and multiple houses, the money for which he earned in his time at BlackRock. Nobody wanted him in any official office he held. He lacks enpathy. He lacks kindness. He lacks leadership. He lacks a vision of the future.
Rightwing policies in an expensive suit.
This does not bode well.
Effectively, they are working toward the AfD Nazi-Far Right taking the power. As why they do that? I have no answer.
He got 500 billion Euro to spend as he pleases (10% of German GDP) and still isn't able to kickstart the economy with that.
He destroys our social security system.
He spews hate against people with migration backgrounds.
His party works with the heritage foundation.
He sold the new digital ministry to the Media Markt / Saturn CEO.
He doesnβt want to ban our new Nazi party, he works with them.
The list goes on. His party is similar to the Republicans.
In addition to the great summary by /u/FleetingTit, his cabinet is full of lobbyism, most egregiously in the form of the support of fossil fuels. He pushes the narrative of the far right party and even votes with them despite promises not to. He implemented illegal border controls (or his ministers did but he openly supports it). He's also inviting war criminals from Israel (protest against Israel is suppressed sometimes quite brutally) and appeases Trump.
Just some things of the top of my head in no particular order.