An INSA survey carried out a few days ago shows that the popularity of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz not only is down to a miserable 22%, but is even behind the popularity of his predecessor, former Chancellor Olf Scholz, who is at 35%. The popularity of Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil is down to 22% as well; the popularity of former Finance Minister Christian Lindner is slightly better, at 24%. This is the situation about a year after the Feb. 23, 2025 early elections when Scholz lost to Merz.