A majority of Germans would not want Angela Merkel to be chancellor again, a public opinion poll showed.

About 70 percent of respondents do not want the return of the conservative politician who stepped down after last year's election after 16 years as chancellor, according to a representative online survey conducted by the Civey Institute for the Funke media group.

Less than a quarter – around 23 percent – ​​would like to see Merkel back at the helm of Europe's biggest economy, the survey shows.

However, around 43 percent of those polled said they thought Merkel was performing her duties better than the current chancellor, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, while 41 percent had the opposite view.