At least 74% of Germans disapprove of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s performance, according to an opinion poll by YouGov, making it the highest level of dissatisfaction on record for a sitting chancellor. At least 77% of Germans also said they place little to no trust in the way Scholz governs their country.
And according to a separate poll by infratest dimap, if elections were held today Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) would receive just 14% of the vote, which is 2% less than last month’s figure and the lowest since June of 2021. A whopping 73% also said they were unhappy with the "traffic light" coalition government, making it the worst monthly figure since the coalition first came to power.
At least 32% of respondents said they would vote for Germany's center-right party the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and in second place 21% of respondents said they would vote for far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD). At least 15% said they would vote for the Green party, and 14% would vote for the SPD.
The Federal Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius, an SPD member, was rated the highest among his fellow ministers, receiving a favorability rating of 52%. Other ministers were unable to garner any support that was higher than 38%. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (of the Green party), received a 38% approval rating, which was the second-highest favorability rating.
According to the poll, 64% or respondents said the federal budget should cut welfare payments, 54% said military aid for Ukraine should be cut, 41% said implementing climate measures in the economy should go, and 27% said planned child welfare should be cut.
The poll comes when Germany’s economy has been particularly struggling ever since the government failed to repurpose 60 billion euros ($65 billion) leftover from the COVID-18 pandemic.
The country’s economic woes have compiled in the last few weeks with a series of incidents: the German Finance Ministry announced last month a freeze on almost all new spending approvals for the remainder of the 2023, last week Germany’s Economy Minister Robert Habeck had to be pulled from a UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) due to the country’s budgetary crisis, and most recently Scholz had the gall to blame President Vladimir Putin for Germany’s economic troubles.
"Russia: Yes, Russia stopped supplying energy to Europe... It was the Russian president who halted gas supplies through a working gas pipeline," Schoz stated. "This has implications for energy prices."
However, it was Scholz's decision to align with the US and Britain in sanctioning Russian energy dramatically worsened Germany’s economic crisis.