German government's approval rating hits all-time low

Support for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition government has declined to the lowest level of 17 percent, a new poll by the country's public broadcaster has found. 


The ARD's poll showed that 82 percent of Germans were either less than happy or not happy at all with the coalition government's performance in the past two years. 


The figures released on Thursday night put support for Chancellor Scholz's Social Democrat Party (SPD) at 14 percent, down two points from the beginning of last month. 


The SPD's coalition partner, the environmentalist Greens scored 15 percent voter support in the poll. The junior coalition partner, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), was at 4 percent. 


Germany's main opposition, the conservative alliance of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), was favoured by 32 percent of respondents. 


The poll found that 21 percent of German voters would give their vote to the far-right AfD, making it the second-strongest party behind the CDU/CS U bloc. 


2024 budget gap

When asked about the current budget crisis, and how to close the 2024 budget gap, the majority of the respondents said the government should take saving measures.

Some 54 percent of Germans said they would support possible cuts to military aid to Ukraine.

Another 41 percent said the government should consider allocating less funds for investments in climate-friendly technologies.

The representative poll was conducted by the research institute Infratest dimap on December 4-6 with a sample of 1,364 people nationwide.