Monday, August 27, 2007

Angela Merkel blows the lid off the polls


Two years ago there was concern in Europe that German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, would have trouble maintaining national support for her coalition government. Not anymore.
As Chancellor Angela Merkel heads to Asia this weekend, her standing at home floats at sky-high levels — she enjoys unprecedented poll ratings, strong economic growth and the first government budget surplus since Germany's 1990 reunification.

[...]

A poll conducted by the Emnid Institute and published Sunday by the Bild weekly showed Merkel's midterm approval at a record 76 percent, with only 21 percent of Germans wanting a change of leadership. No margin of error was given.

Her performance in foreign relations has a lot to do with her popularity, Emnid director Klaus-Peter Schoeppner was quoted as saying by the Bild newspaper.

"People admire how Merkel stands her ground in the world of men like (U.S. President George W.) Bush, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin or (French President Nicolas) Sarkozy," Schoeppner said. "Definitely the rating is also a result of the German EU and G-8 presidencies."

There are a few politicians who would walk through miles of broken glass to get polling numbers like that.

I guess taking 66 trips to Crawford to deal with the brush just doesn't cut it with American voters.

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