Shortly before she bows out from politics after the federal election at the end of the month, Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to enjoy high approval ratings - not only at home in Germany, but also abroad. 

Merkel has best approval rating of any world leader

Angela Merkel’s approval rating in five major European countries and the United States is higher than any other current world leader, according to a new opinion poll from YouGov. As The Guardian reports, when asked if they had a favourable or unfavourable opinion of Merkel, more respondents expressed a positive verdict of Merkel than a negative one, in all six countries. 

Merkel, who steps down next month after being in office since 2005, proved most popular in Spain, where she scored a net approval rating of +61. Equally complimentary were survey respondents in France and Germany, where her rating was +49 and +30, respectively. 

Her ratings were slightly less positive in Italy (+23), the US (+17) and the UK (+15), but of the other world leaders, only US President Joe Biden scored an approval rating even remotely close to Merkel’s, with his highest score of +40 coming from Germany. 

The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, also scored positive ratings, while France’s Emmanuel Macron received positive ratings in only two countries. The leaders of other major countries, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and China’s Xi Jinping, garnered negative ratings in all six countries surveyed. 

Handling of German economy rated positively

The survey results showed that Merkel was most appreciated for her handling of the German economy. Among those who had heard of her, she received a net positive rating of +46 for her economic management, as well as a positive rating of +44,5 for improving Germany’s reputation abroad, and +34 for her impact on German society. 

Survey respondents also looked positively upon her handling of climate change and the coronavirus pandemic, while her input in Brexit, the Greek debt crisis and the 2015 migration crisis were less positively received.