Clapping for the chancellor: only one in ten considers him to be a strong leader

Olaf Scholz sees himself as a professional in the art of government. For a long time, many Germans shared this image. But since the Constitutional Court's debt ruling, the chancellor's image has been in ruins.

, and ZEITUNG «AUSSIEDLERBOTE»

2023 December 5 . 6:33 AM

2 min read

Competence was long regarded as Olaf Scholz's main strength (here at the World Climate Conference....aussiedlerbote.de — Competence was long regarded as Olaf Scholz's main strength (here at the World Climate Conference in Dubai). However, a new survey now shows that his reputation among Germans has suffered badly..aussiedlerbote.de

Stern survey - Clapping for the chancellor: only one in ten considers him to be a strong leader

Olaf Scholz 's reputation has deteriorated dramatically over the past six months. Forsa regularly surveys a profile of the chancellor's characteristics for stern magazine. The latest result: never before have the results been so disastrous. Just ten percent of Germans still consider the head of government to be a strong leader. This is a drop of 13 percentage points compared to May 2023 and even 22 percentage points compared to May 2022. Particularly alarming for the SPD, which is already in a polling slump anyway: only 21% of the party's remaining voters consider the head of government to be a strong leader.

The decline is dramatic when it comes to competence: in May 2022, 61% of Germans still attributed this quality to Scholz, in May 2023 it was 46% and currently just 31% of Germans still consider the chancellor to be competent. In a year and a half, this figure has halved. Obviously, since the current budget crisis at the latest, the head of government has lost the aura of professionalism that helped him win the election in 2021. It is fitting that of the voters who have since turned their backs on the SPD, only 36% still consider Scholz to be competent. Among the remaining supporters, the figure is still 62%.

The Chancellor also lost significantly in the four other categories of the characteristics profile compared to May of this year: only 25% say that Scholz knows what moves people - a drop of ten percentage points. Just 32% still consider him trustworthy - a drop of 12 percentage points. Scholz is also no longer able to convince at least half of Germans when it comes to the softer criteria: only 41% find him likeable (down 5 percentage points); only 42% say that he speaks clearly (down 9 percentage points).

The leaders of the traffic light coalition are currently looking for ways out of the budget crisis. However, in view of Scholz's poor poll ratings, it is hard to imagine how he can win back voters and run a successful election campaign for the chancellorship, even with a new financial package.

The data was collected by the market and opinion research institute forsa for RTL Group Germany on November 30 and December 1, 2023. Data basis: 1007 respondents. Statistical margin of error: +/- 3 percentage points.