Birthday for the traffic light!
On Thursday it was a year since Olaf Scholz (64, SPD) was sworn in as the ninth Chancellor of the Federal Republic. But instead of gifts, there are grades for the governing coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP.
The voters only give the traffic light an average rating of 4.1 (INSA on Friday, 1002 respondents). And the coalition has also been wiped out in all regular surveys.
► In the Sunday trend, the SPD, Greens and FDP together only get 44 percent. In the federal election, 52 percent voted for the traffic light parties.
► 64 percent are dissatisfied with the government (vs. 36 percent a year ago), 58 percent with Chancellor Scholz (vs. 22 percent).
► There are deficits especially in the subjects of remedying the nursing shortage (here 74 percent see a need to catch up), better equipping schools (71 percent) and social justice (65 percent).
The traffic light started with big goals, wrote “dare more progress” about their coalition agreement. Then came war, gas shortages, the collapse of supply chains.
Almost from the beginning of her term of office, the traffic light was busy with “tough daily politics under high pressure and with very little room for manoeuvre”, explains political expert Andrea Römmele from the Hertie School in Berlin. “In doing so, the long-term vision and the common narrative of the traffic light fell almost completely under the table. The coalition gets lost in arguments about urgent measures instead of talking about what Germany should look like in 2030.”
There were also embarrassing mishaps: first the compulsory vaccination failed, then in the fall the gas surcharge and, because of the constant bickering between the Greens and the FDP, almost a compromise was reached to extend the lifetime of the nuclear power plant.
If the traffic light wants to get out of the survey low, it has to flip the switch in 2023, according to Römmele. “The rough course for crisis management has now been set, now the traffic light must make it clear what it stands for.”
This article comes from BILD am SONNTAG. The ePaper of the entire issue is available here.