Markus Söder will get Contra: Germans need to hold all federal states | EUROtoday

It was a stunning transfer by Markus Söder. According to the CSU boss, bigger models are extra profitable than small ones, which is why “fewer federal states are needed, quite simply.” The Bavarian Prime Minister didn’t reveal which international locations he wished to save lots of. In addition to Saarland, he in all probability meant town states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg.

A transparent majority of Germans reject a discount within the variety of federal states. This was the results of a Forsa survey commissioned by stern. 64 p.c are towards reorganization of the states, 30 p.c are in favor and 6 p.c don’t remark. In Bavaria, too, 67 p.c of residents reject a reorganization. The outcomes are comparable in different populous international locations – akin to North Rhine-Westphalia (61 p.c) and Baden-Württemberg (69 p.c). Not surprisingly, 65 p.c of the residents of the smaller federal states (below 4 million inhabitants) are additionally towards Söder’s initiative. The smaller ones embrace town states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia.

There can be no distinction in evaluation between West and East Germany: 64 and 65 p.c respectively are towards it. CDU/CSU voters nonetheless have probably the most assist for state reorganization (38 to 58 p.c). At 71 p.c, resistance is best amongst SPD supporters. Just 22 p.c of SPD supporters are in favor of merging smaller and bigger states. Hardly stunning: the get together is the pinnacle of presidency in most small international locations.

The information was collected by the market and opinion analysis institute forsa for stern and RTL Deutschland on January 15 and 16, 2026. Database: 1008 respondents. Statistical margin of error: +/- 3 share factors. The survey is subsequently consultant.