BERLIN, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Two thirds of German voters want interior minister and Christian Social Union (CSU) leader Horst Seehofer to resign from both posts, a new "RTL/n-tv" opinion poll published on Monday found.
According to the regular and representative survey, more than half (57 percent) attributed the relatively poor performance of the CSU in the recent Bavarian elections to Seehofer. The conservative sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union recently slumped to its worst ever result with 37.2 percent (minus 10.5 percentage points) in Bavaria where it has traditionally held an absolute legislative majority.
Even among self-declared CSU voters polled by the Forsa institute for "RTL" and n-tv", patience for the interior minister appears to have run thin. 67 percent indicated that they expected the CSU leader to step down in the wake of the disappointing performance of his party in its Bavarian homestead.
Having clashed with Merkel over asylum policy and the dismissal of a controversial intelligence chief during past months, Seehofer has repeatedly resisted calls for his resignation.
Last weekend, the 69-year-old reiterated that was unwilling to assume the exclusive responsibility for the losses of voter support experienced in Bavaria and has since said that he would rather offer up his post as party leader than depart the interior ministry.
Even before the outcome of the ballot was known, Seehofer had emphasized in response to criticism of his conduct in the ruling "grand coalition" in Berlin that developing an electoral strategy was not his task but that of the regional party leader and acting governor of Bavaria Markus Soeder.
In spite of the increasingly negative voter sentiment towards the interior minister captured in opinion surveys, German Social Democrat (SPD) vice-president Ralf Stegner warned in the newspaper WELT on Monday that Seehofer's exit from government would not in itself resolve all of the issues of Merkel's fourth governing cabinet. "I caution against the false belief that personnel decisions of other parties will resolve the problems of the SPD", Stegner said.
Given the generally weak ratings of the CDU, CSU and SPD in the latest "RTL/n-tv" poll, Stegner also questioned whether the "grand coalition" could still survive a full term in office. "If the appearance of the Berlin coalition does not change quickly and drastically, this alliance will not last", the SPD vice-president told WELT.
When questioned by the Forsa institute whom they would vote for if federal elections were held next Sunday, only a combined 27 percent (minus one percentage point) of respondents said they would cast their ballot for the CDU/CSU. The SPD recorded its worst ever result of 14 percent (minus two percentage points) in the latest poll and hence came in fourth place behind the Alternative for Germany (AfD) at 15 percent (plus one percentage points) and the Greens (Gruene) with 21 percent (plus two percentage points).
