New survey - Disastrous half-time result for the traffic lights - Olaf Scholz, the most incompetent
Half-time! The government made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP has been in office for almost two years. In view of the unresolved budget situation and plenty of disputes between the two parties, the mood is already poor. But now a survey has dealt the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) an additional blow just before Christmas. The latest forsa survey commissioned by RTL/ntv gives the government a devastating mid-term report card.
The majority of respondents believe that the majority of the cabinet is not suitable for government office. The most incompetent? The chancellor himself, of all people. Only 19 percent agree with the statement that Scholz is suitable for his office. 73 percent disagree. If you subtract the votes that consider him "not suitable" from those that consider him "suitable", Scholz ends up with a catastrophic competence score of -54 points.
Ten of his ministers are also considered "not suitable" by more respondents. Two other SPD members occupy second and third place in the negative balance: Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Construction Minister Klara Geywitz score -48 and -42 points respectively.
Defense Minister Pistorius is rated best
This is followed by FDP Transport Minister Volker Wissing (-39), FDP Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (-33), Green Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (-23) and her party colleague, Family Minister Lisa Paus (-22). Three of the most prominent cabinet members, Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP, -14), Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens, -14) and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens, -9) are also rated as unsuitable by the majority of respondents.
Nevertheless, every governing party can point to at least one minister who is rated as capable. For the Greens it is Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (+13), for the FDP it is Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (+5). The SPD even has four: Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (+2) by a very narrow margin, Chancellery Chief Wolfgang Schmidt (+12) and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (+15). The shooting star with +59 points is Boris Pistorius. The Minister of Defense, who was only sworn in at the beginning of the year, was rated by 75% of respondents as being able to perform his duties well - he leads the list by a wide margin.
These rays of hope cannot hide the fact that the survey shows one thing above all: a further dramatic loss of confidence in the traffic light system. With the exception of Schmidt and Buschmann, all cabinet members received worse ratings - in some cases significantly worse - than last year. And in almost all cases, the previous year's ratings were already significantly worse than when the traffic light government took office. Compared to the previous year, Faeser (from -8 at the end of 2022 to -48 at the end of 2023), Baerbock (from +19 to -9), Habeck (from +6 to -14), Geywitz (from -27 to -42) and Lindner (from -2 to -14) have deteriorated the most. This does not include Pistorius and Scholz, who were surveyed for the first time this year.
The data was collected by the market and opinion research institute forsa for RTL Group Germany from December 6 to 8, 2023. Data basis: 1006 respondents. Statistical margin of error: +/- 3 percentage points.
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The survey places Defense Minister Boris Pistorius at the top, with an impressive competence score of +59 points, making him the most capable minister in the cabinet. Despite this, the survey shows a significant decrease in confidence in many cabinet members, with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, Finance Minister Christian Lindner, and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock among those who have deteriorated the most. The survey also reveals that a majority of respondents consider Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) unsuitable for their roles, giving them negative competence scores of -54 and -14 respectively. FDP Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger and Greens Environment Minister Steffi Lemke also received negative scores, while SPD Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, Chancellery Chief Wolfgang Schmidt, and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil managed to earn positive scores, albeit marginally.
Source: www.stern.de
