Friedrich Merz gives women voters the ick

BERLIN — It’s no secret that Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel isn’t fond of current conservative front-runner Friedrich Merz. But she’s not the only woman Merz has to worry about.

Often referenced in Germany as Merz’s “women problem,” surveys time and again indicate a considerable gender gap when it comes to preference for Germany’s likely next chancellor.

In an Ipsos survey from early February, 21 percent of men named Merz as the political leader best-suited to become chancellor — but just 15 percent of women answered the same.

The only other candidate to divide men and women to that extent was Alice Weidel, who heads the far-right Alternative for Germany or AfD party, at second place in polling.

There was no significant gender gap in support for the Greens’ Robert Habeck and incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz — although Scholz did slightly better among men in the February poll.

The gap looks particularly pronounced among Germany’s young people.

In a survey out last year, women aged 14 to 29 reported significantly less support for Merz’s party than their male peers (the voting age in Germany is 18). That study also pointed to less female support for the AfD and greater party indecision among young women.

And Merz’s problem is not just in statistics. 

Over the course of the campaign, opponents have pulled out previous statements and voting records that portray Merz as misogynistic.

Merz’s conservative alliance — which consists of his center-right Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union — has proactively tried to combat that image, while acknowledging the difficulties around their lead candidate’s weakness among the female electorate.

“The CDU/CSU has of course countered personal campaigns against Friedrich Merz,” said Andrea Lindholz, a senior CSU parliamentarian, describing how the party targeted women voters on social media to refute Merz’s female-unfriendly image ahead of the Feb. 23 election. That effort included the Instagram page frauenfuermerz2025 or “Women for Merz 2025,” where conservative women speak out in favor of their chancellor candidate.

Merz — who temporarily switched politics for corporate life after Merkel overtook him as the CDU’s rising star in 2009 — has been ambivalent on female representation.

During his first party conference as the CDU’s new leader in 2022, Merz pushed through a temporary quota for women to be introduced gradually over the coming years.

In 2024, every fourth CDU parliamentarian in the Bundestag was a woman while 27 percent of CDU members were female, according to party statistics. That puts the conservatives on about the same level as the liberal Free Democratic Party — but well ahead of the AfD, which counts just nine women among its 76 Bundestag members. Yet the conservatives lie far behind the Bundestag team of the Social Democratic Party, or SPD, of which more than 40 percent are women; while the Greens and The Left parties can boast of more than 50 percent women.

“My wish is that we encourage more women to take on a political mandate. Women work and lead differently. Mixed teams work better. Women make politics better,” Merz wrote in the run-up to the current election campaign. 

But only three days later, Merz ruled out parity in a Cabinet under his leadership, saying this could lead to picking the wrong candidate — as had been the case, he argued, with female Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, who after a series of mishaps resigned from Scholz’s center-left government in early 2023.

Saskia Esken, a female leader in Scholz’s SPD, scorned that approach during a campaign event as “not doing women a favor by ‘overburdening’ them in leadership positions.”

“What century is this man actually living in?” Esken said. She added: “Together, we will prevent him from kicking women out of leadership positions. This man has no place in the chancellor’s office.”

Merz — long aware of his reputation — has attempted, somewhat awkwardly, to refute the notion that he holds antiquated views on the role of women.

In his candidacy speech for the CDU party chairmanship in 2021, he remarked on the reputation of having an “outdated image” of women. “If that were the case, my daughters would have shown me a yellow card long ago. And my wife wouldn’t even have married me 40 years ago.”

Observers point out that the 69-year-old’s close professional circle is dominated almost exclusively by men. 

Trend reversal

In past decades, Germany’s conservatives could typically count on stronger support among women than men; presumably, the party’s focus on family values and stability chimed with the priorities of certain women, said Robert Grimm, who works as politics and social research director for Ipsos in Germany.

That appears to have tapered off toward the end of Merkel’s time at the helm of the party.

The CDU was a very different party under Merkel, according to Grimm. He noted Merz reoriented the party toward its “conservative fringe.”

“Angela Merkel’s CDU was certainly more of a social CDU, more of a caring CDU. And I think she also portrayed this ‘mother of the nation’ kind of image,” he argued. This echoes Merkel’s longtime nickname, Mutti. “Perhaps that was more appealing to female voters.”

Also within the party, concerns abound that Merz’s rightward turn is making the CDU less appealing for young people, women, eastern Germans, or families with a migrant background.

Mario Czaja, who served as CDU general secretary under Merz from 2022 to 2023, said the political approach at that time was “more geared toward spreading our arms and opening the doors of the CDU to new groups of voters who share our values.”

But he and Merz parted ways, Czaja said, as Merz increasingly wanted to focus on “core political issues, namely: The economy, the economy, the economy.” Czaja refocused on his lawmaker duties and is currently campaigning for reelection in Berlin’s eastern Marzahn district.

And yet: While surveys do indicate Merz does have a “women problem,” they don’t prove that his conservative alliance has a general issue among female voters.

The Ipsos study revealed a gender gap about chancellor candidates, not their parties; the only party with a significant gap in voting intention between men and women was the AfD.

The party’s current leadership could be making it “more difficult for female voters to vote for the CDU,” argued Grimm, the Ipsos director.

Regardless, many women could decide to vote for the CDU “despite Merz,” he said.