A month before the European elections, the level of awareness of most of the top candidates in Germany is still relatively low. As a survey commissioned by the dpa shows, this does not apply to only two of them: Only almost one in four eligible voters (24 percent) do not know who Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann from the FDP is. The chairwoman of the Bundestag’s Defense Committee has been campaigning for Ukraine to receive more military support since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression.
As the opinion research institute YouGov found in a survey between May 3rd and 8th, only 37 percent of voters do not know AfD MEP Maximilian Krah. However, for the AfD, which has recently hidden its top candidate, his popularity is not necessarily good news. The EU parliamentarian has been criticized for possible connections to Russia and China as well as the arrest of an employee on suspicion of espionage.
According to the survey, the Green Party politician Terry Reintke is unknown to 63 percent of respondents aged 16 and over. 57 percent said they did not know the top candidate Fabio De Masi, who is running for the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance. 52 percent do not know the left’s leading candidate Martin Schirdewan. For 42 percent, Carola Rackete, who is in second place on the list behind Schirdewan, is an unknown.
41 percent don’t know the SPD’s top candidate
The SPD’s top candidate, Katarina Barley, is currently Vice President of the European Parliament. The lawyer and former federal minister is unknown to 41 percent of those eligible to vote. 48 percent of voters do not know Manfred Weber, the CSU’s top candidate. The CDU politician Ursula von der Leyen is running for a second term as President of the EU Commission, but not for a seat in the European Parliament.
27 percent of those surveyed see Strack-Zimmermann as very positive or somewhat positive. 35 percent of the survey participants expressed negative opinions about the FDP top candidate. According to the survey, the AfD European Parliamentarian Krah is perceived particularly negatively by those who know who he is, at 37 percent. Only 13 percent of those surveyed see it very positively or somewhat positively.
