An Infratest dimap poll published late on Thursday showed that 59 percent of voters think Merkel is doing a good job, down 10 points from the previous month. She trailed her finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who was down 1 point at 64 percent.

However, Merkel has little to fear as her Social Democrat (SPD) rival Martin Schulz hit a new low of 33 percent, down four points from last month.