The government is disapproved by 82% of Germans

According to a Friday ARD-DeutschlandTrend poll, 82% of Germans are not happy with how the nation’s “traffic light” ruling coalition is performing.

Among German leaders surveyed since the survey’s inception in 1997, Chancellor Olaf Scholz in particular scored the lowest approval rating, with only 20% of respondents finding his work to be adequate and only 27% believing he can perform the job at all.

Alongside the historically low level of public enthusiasm, only 23% of respondents thought Scholz was a crisis manager who they could trust, and a pitiful 12% thought the chancellor was a compelling speaker.

The poll, which was done in advance of the coalition’s second anniversary of being formed by the Social Democrats, Greens, and Free Democrats, found levels of popular dissatisfaction with the administration that had not been seen in Germany in thirteen years.

Only 52% of respondents gave Defence Minister Boris Pistorius a favourable rating, representing a tiny majority of respondents. Just 38% of voters gave Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock a favourable rating, and 30% of voters gave Minister of Economy Robert Habeck a lower endorsement. The public’s perception of Scholz’s other cabinet members was considerably less favourable.

After Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled last month that the attempted repurposing of €60 billion ($65 billion) in unused Covid-19 cash for the Climate and Transformation Fund was unlawful, the poll findings showed a significant shift in public attitude against the government. Berlin was compelled to freeze the majority of its new spending obligations as a result of the verdict, which precipitated an ongoing budget crisis.

With regard to the conflict’s “existential importance” for Germany and Europe as a whole, Scholz has pledged to support Kiev for “as long as it is necessary,” despite the majority of respondents (54%) suggesting that the government could help bridge the gap by reducing military aid to Ukraine. In fact, he may possibly increase Ukraine’s military assistance by double in the upcoming year.

It has been reported that German soldiers are still missing basic equipment and vital facility maintenance at home, some two years after Scholz made a pledge to set up a €100 billion fund to modernise his own nation’s military.

Nearly three quarters of respondents to a YouGov-dpa poll conducted in August expressed a poor opinion of Scholz and his traffic-light coalition, even before the current budget crisis. Simultaneously, research firm Insa discovered that only 15% of respondents thought the current administration was better than the last, with over 50% preferring the “grand coalition” led by Angela Merkel, Scholz’s predecessor.