Sure, that’s true. Angela Merkel’s approval rating, however, reached as high as 77%.

that mostly is a question of how the question is being asked, like you could ask merz approve/disapprove, or does he do a good/bad job...

but for merkel in regards to her doing a "good" job.... suprisingly many people thought that, see https://www.statista.com/chart/23144/merkel-opinion-polls-since-2005/

and as far as i can tell, the "14%" number is voters from another party's approval rating of merz, see https://min.news/en/world/1507853cbdd8c108c09a91cd4c3a9850.html

The support rate of the Union Party dropped to 27%, and the support rate of the Social Democratic Party dropped to 13%.

which would make a lot more sense.

but the fact remains, that merz is quite unpopular due to his political agenda, and him opening his mouth