Germany news: Majority thinks coalition doomed — survey

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said he has told his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in a phone call that Tehran must reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping and abandon its nuclear weapons program."   

"I emphasised that Germany supports a negotiated solution," Wadephul said in a post on X about the call. "As a close US ally, we share the same goal: Iran must completely and verifiably renounce nuclear weapons and immediately open the Strait of Hormuz, as also demanded by" US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Iran virtually closed off the strait — a vital waterway for the transport of oil, gas and fertilizer — after the US and Israel launched attacks on it on February 28 and has so far not reopened it despite the current ceasefire, causing economic disruption across the globe.

However, it denies wanting to produce nuclear weapons and says its uranium enrichment activities, which are viewed with suspicion by many Western countries, are for civilian purposes only.

You can read more about the war on Iran and its consequences over in our blog here.

A number of wildfires have broken out in several German states as the country experiences a period of warm, largely dry weather.

The biggest fire of the season so far erupted on Friday at a former military training ground near the town of Jüterbogin the state of Brandenburg, which surrounds the capital, Berlin.

It has burnt out more than 110 hectares (247 acres), and strong winds on Sunday are likely to cause it to spread further, according to Dr. Antje Wurz from the Brandenburg Wilderness Foundation, which owns the site.

Wurz, a forestry scientist, said that it was "unusual for such a wildfire to occur so early in the year."

Firefighters have had to contend with the large amounts of ordnance still at the site, which is now a nature reserve and has been affected by several wildfires in the past few years.

There have also been smaller fires further south in the western states of North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW), Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate.

In NRW, firefighters were still extinguishing isolated fire pockets on Sunday after bringing a blaze near Attendorn in the Sauerland region largely under control a day earlier. A spokesperson for the fire brigade said 41,000 square meters (10 acres) of land had been affected.

He said efforts to quell the last remnants of the fire would probably last into Monday.

Other smaller fires were reported near Romrod in the Vogelsberg region of Hesse and in the district of Altenkirchen in Rheinland-Palatinate.
 

German football club Schalke 04 has returned to the Bundesliga, the top tier of Germany's league system, after three seasons in the second division.

Schalke, which has been German champion seven times, achieved the promotion with a 1-0 win in its home of Gelsenkirchen against Fortuna Düsseldorf.

Tens of thousands of fans hailed the achievement by celebrating well into the night in the city center, with police saying their behavior stayed under control despite the exuberant mood.

However, the jubilation did cause traffic disruptions and a halt to tram services.

The happiness of the fans was compounded by the announcement that Miron Muslic, the coach behind the promotion. had extended his contract until 2028.

Captain Kenan Karaman, who scored the goal that clinched the promotion, said: "Schalke belong in the first division and we're staying there now."

Schalke is one of Europe's best-supported teams, with 200,000 members, exceeded only by Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, with the latter team, also from the Ruhr area, a former mining hub, being one of its bitterest rivals.

The president of the Munich-based Ifo Institute, a leading economic think tank, has warned that the German economy could face serious consequences amid the threat of new US tariffs.

"If this turns into a new trade war, Germany faces a recession in 2026," Clemens Fuest told the mass-circulaton Bild newspaper in comments published on Sunday.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump said he would raise tariffs on cars and trucks imported from the EU to 25% starting next week, accusing the bloc of failing to comply with a trade agreement.

The EU has denied the accusations and said that it was keeping its options open as to a possible response.

 In July 2025, Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reached an agreement capping tariffs on most EU imports, including cars and car parts, at 15%, thus averting a trade war.

The agreement has still not received full approval by the bloc, which is not expected till June.

The US remains a key export market for German carmakers such as Porsche, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Another INSA survey published on  Sunday has shown that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative CDU/CSU bloc in popularity ratings.

Support for the AfD was 28%, while the conservative bloc sits at 24%. 

The junior coalition partner in the federal government, the center-left SPD, remained at 14%, the same level as in the previous week's poll, while the opposition Greens rose one point to 13%.

The socialist Left Party was at 11%.

The growing popularity of the AfD in Germany comes despite the fact that several of its local chapters have been classified as right-wing extremist by local intelligence agencies.

A classification by the BfV domestic intelligence agency that the entire AfD is right-wing extremist, issued last year, is currently suspended following an appeal by the party.

The BfV has pointed to allegedly racist and anti-constitutional elements in the party's platform to justify its concerns.

Germany's conservative-led coalition government between the mainstream center-right and center-left parties has received poor marks in a survey published on Sunday.

According to the survey by the INSA Institute, conducted for the Sunday tabloid Bild am Sonntag, 58% of people in Germany feel that the conservative-led government will fall apart before elections scheduled for 2029.

Just under a quarter (24%) believed it would last the course, while another 18% either did not know or did not answer.

The coalition also received bad points for its governance record up to now, with three-quarters of respondents saying they were dissatisfied with its performance as against 16% who felt the government was doing a good job.

The coalition comprises the conservative bloc of Christian Democrats (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), together with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).

It took office just under a year ago, with CDU Chancellor Friedrich Merz sworn in on May 6.

The DW newsroom in Bonn says a warm guten Tag to its readers across the world!

Among other things, our blog will be looking at a survey showing that many people do not believe the right-left coalition government is likely to stick together for a whole term. 

The German economy, which is currently facing manifold challenges, is also in focus as the head of an influential think tank warns on the effects of US tariffs.

And we will continue to look at the fallout from the US announcement that it will withdraw thousands of troops from Germany over the coming months.

Read on here for more on these and other stories on Sunday, May 3.