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German support for Chancellor Scholz's government slumps to an all-time low

Far-right AfD continues to climb in opinion polls, reaches record-high 22 percent in latest poll by German public broadcaster.

Reuters

Only 16 percent of the people backed Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrat Party (SPD). Photo: Reuters

Support for Germany’s liberal- left coalition government slumped to an all-time low of 36 percent, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) reached a record high of 22 percent, a new poll by the country's public broadcaster has found.

The figures released on Thursday night put support for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrat Party (SPD) at 16 percent, down one point from the beginning of last month.

The SPD’s coalition partner, the environmentalist Greens, also lost one point, falling back to a 14 percent voter share. The junior coalition partner, the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), was at 6 percent.

Germany’s main opposition, the conservative alliance of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), was favoured by 29 percent of respondents.

The far-right AfD, which has been under surveillance by the intelligence for posing a threat to democracy, recorded a new high of 22 percent support, according to the ARD Deutschl andTrend survey.

The poll found that the economy has become a top concern for German voters, and 46 percent said they expect that the economic situation will be worse in a year than it is today.

Pressure mounts on Olaf Scholz as German economy takes a battering

Some 26 percent of the voters cited immigration as their top concern, followed by climate change (18 percent), social injustice and poverty (16 percent), and the government’s energy policy (9 percent).

The far-right AfD has doubled its vote share since the last election in 2021, benefiting from broad dissatisfaction with the coalition government’s policies.

Some 79 percent of those surveyed were either less than happy or not happy at all with the center-left liberal coalition government, according to the latest poll. Only 19 percent of voters said the government was performing well.

Leading figures of the AfD repeatedly criticised Scholz government’s stance on Russia-Ukraine conflict, opposed sending weapons to Ukraine, and argued that ending energy imports from Russia was against Germany’s national interests.