New Delhi, July 15 -- BERLIN - Friedrich Merz walked into the Bundestag's summer recess this week carrying an approval rating that most German chancellors reach only at the end of a troubled term. A Forsa poll commissioned by RTL broadcaster found that 85 percent of Germans disapprove of the chancellor's performance, the worst figure recorded for his tenure and a sharp acceleration from the trajectory of a year ago.

The survey, conducted among 2,503 respondents from July 7 through 13, found 82 percent express dissatisfaction with Merz's CDU-SPD cabinet as a whole. Just 14 percent approve. The margin of error is approximately 2.5 percentage points. When Eastern Herald reported on the Forsa data a year ago, the disapproval figure stood at ...