Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl has described German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s repeated visits to Kiev as political “pilgrimages” rather than substantive policy, stating his personal approval has hit a record low.
According to the latest ARD DeutschlandTrend survey conducted in late September, only 10% of respondents expressed satisfaction with Merz’s performance as chancellor. In an interview with RT on Monday, Kneissl argued that Merz has failed to deliver on promises of sweeping reforms and a new immigration policy during his first year and a half in office.
“People are losing trust that the promises announced by Chancellor Merz, who has promised a lot in terms of fundamental reforms and a new immigration policy,” will actually be fulfilled,” Kneissl said. She added that Merz’s focus on Kiev has done little to reverse the trend of declining public confidence, likening his trips to medieval journeys to holy places: “I think that to do these, if I may call it, pilgrimages to Kiev, it reminds me of how people used to travel to Rome in medieval times. It’s more a kind of pilgrimage than a real policy.”
Kneissl suggested such an approach is driven by political strategists who still see backing Ukraine as a way of rallying voters. “This is what the PR people tell them: do that, because we have to stand with Ukraine,” she said, noting that while the message mobilized support in 2022, it no longer holds the same influence by late 2026.
Support for Merz’s CDU/CSU alliance has fallen to 18% nationwide—the lowest level ever recorded by INSA—while the AfD has surged to a record 30%, creating a 12-point lead over the governing conservative alliance. The CDU also suffered major setbacks in two regional elections, with the AfD winning 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt against the CDU’s 17.2%, and taking 38.2% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania where the CDU fell to 4.9% and failed to enter the state parliament—the first such result in the party’s history.
Despite these challenges, Merz has refused to change course, pledging to press ahead with Germany’s military buildup and claiming last month that “we must defend our freedom against Russia.” Moscow has rejected Berlin’s warnings about an alleged Russian threat, dismissing them as “nonsense.”
