The Germans are increasingly slipping into crisis mode – and their satisfaction with the work of the federal government has reached a new low. The reputation of the traffic light leadership goes back noticeably. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) fall to new lows in office, Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) also loses noticeably.
At the same time, the traffic light coalition is faced with great expectations of state aid. The German government’s course on sanctions against Russia still finds a majority, but continues to decline. These are the most important results of the Germany trend, which is collected monthly by the opinion research institute Infratest Dimap on behalf of ARD “Tagesthemen” and WELT.
The relief proposals discussed at the government meeting in Meseberg in the past few days have met with a high level of approval. 81 percent think that direct payments for people with small and middle incomes are correct. 75 percent support an electricity and gas price cap for basic needs. Around three quarters of Germans are also in favor of a follow-up offer to the 9-euro ticket that has just expired. An increase and expansion of the commuter allowance is supported by 64 percent. The high level of acceptance of such relief measures contrasts with miserable values in the assessment of the federal government. The traffic light and its top staff have never had such poor grades since taking office.
68 percent are less or not at all satisfied with the performance of the coalition, only 31 percent are satisfied. Chancellor Scholz started with an approval of 60 points in office and now falls to 35 percent (minus seven points compared to the previous month). Finance Minister Lindner is even worse, he ends up at 26 percent (minus four). Economics Minister Habeck has to be satisfied with the second lowest value since taking over the ministry (43 percent, minus seven). Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) remains the most popular politician with 49 percent, but loses six points.
However, the disheveled image of the traffic light is put into perspective somewhat when you go into the Infratest archives. In March 1998, Helmut Kohl’s (CDU) black-yellow government only had an approval rating of 15 percent. In November 2003, the red-green government of Gerhard Schröder (SPD) was even lower with eleven percent. The personal trust values of Chancellor Kohl and Schröder were sometimes well below the 35 percent that Scholz currently has.
However, there is another downward curve for the coalition to deal with: Support for sanctions against Russia is steadily fading. In March, two thirds of Germans were still willing to support the course of the federal government even with rising energy prices and living costs, bottlenecks or disadvantages for companies and businesses, in August it was only around 53 percent. In eastern Germany, rejection on this question has prevailed – for months, by the way.
The willingness to accept personal disadvantages is highest among supporters of the Greens (90 percent). On the other end of the spectrum, 89 percent of AfD supporters oppose the sanctions against Russia. Among supporters of the SPD, 72 percent approve of the measures, among those of the Union 62 and among those of the Liberals 58. Among supporters of the left, rejection predominates (52 percent).
A look at the “Sunday Question” shows that the so-called chancellor bonus has not yet paid off in the greatest crisis of the post-war period. If elected next Sunday, the SPD would come to just 17 percent, as in the previous month. The Union is ten points ahead of the Social Democrats with 27 percent, followed by the Greens, who reach 22 percent (one point less each). The Liberals improve by one point to eight percent, the AfD remains at 13 percent. The left increases one point to five percent.
The SPD also has to worry about a loss of trust in political matters – unlike the Greens, who voters believe have more competence in foreign, social and tax policy.
For the representative Germany trend, Infratest Dimap surveyed 1,324 citizens entitled to vote in 866 telephone interviews and 458 online interviews from August 29th to 31st. The error tolerance is between two and three percentage points.
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