Things are anything but going well for the traffic light government. This is also reflected in the current politician ranking: Lindner and Scholz in particular are losing approval ratings.
Which politicians do Germans think their country is in good hands with? The answer to this question is provided by the politician ranking by ntv and RTL. The respondents give their assessment of 20 politicians on a scale from 0 (“not in good hands at all”) to 100 (“completely in good hands”). The result of the ranking compiled by the Forsa Institute: In September 2024, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Finance Minister Christian Lindner will be the clear losers.
The other members of the traffic light coalition are also losing trust, even Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. He is still able to defend his top spot in the rankings. Compared to June, CDU leader Friedrich Merz has gained ground, but remains behind the Union’s prime ministers.
Interesting: Following the AfD’s electoral success, chairmen Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla have been able to improve their rankings. However, newcomer Björn Höcke enjoys very little trust.
Graphic I: Politician ranking in September 2024
The graphic below shows the complete ranking with 20 politicians at a glance.
Graphic II: old and new federal states
The representatives of the “old” parties included in the ranking consistently perform worse in the new federal states than in the old federal states. The political actors of the AfD and BSW, on the other hand, enjoy greater trust in the east of Germany than in the west.
Graphic III: Trust among own supporters
CSU leader Markus Söder and party founder Sahra Wagenknecht have the greatest support among their own supporters, followed by Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck. Boris Pistorius enjoys more trust among SPD voters than Olaf Scholz. CDU leader Merz is not only behind Söder in the Union camp, but also behind NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst and Schleswig-Holstein state leader Daniel Günther.
Graphic IV: Supporters of BSW and AfD
AfD and BSW supporters trust most political actors less than the average of respondents. Only their own representatives Wagenknecht, Weidel, Chrupalla and Höcke are rated better. AfD supporters place more trust in BSW founder Sahra Wagenknecht than BSW supporters do in AfD leaders Alice Weidel, Tino Chrupalla and Björn Höcke.
Conclusion of the politician ranking
The opinion researchers at Forsa summarize their results as follows: “The trust that voters have in the individual political actors had initially largely solidified in the first half of the year, so that the trust ratings had not changed significantly until the middle of the year.” Since June, however, the trust ratings of the members of the traffic light government have deteriorated, especially those of Chancellor Scholz and Finance Minister Lindner.
CDU leader Merz, on the other hand, is clearly ahead of Scholz, but does not enjoy as much trust among the citizens as the three CDU/CSU state premiers represented. In the new federal states, trust in the actors of the old parties is lower than in the west. Supporters of the BSW and the AfD have less trust in the actors of the other parties than in their own politicians.
55th birthday
Sahra Wagenknecht: Pictures of her life between Karl Marx and party politics
In the gallery: The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance has been in existence for six months and if its chairwoman has her way, the BSW will become the new people’s party. It is not Wagenknecht’s first attempt to make political history.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
