According to a recent poll, the Green Party’s popularity in Germany has dropped to its lowest level in over five years. This comes as the country’s coalition government struggles to address a significant budget shortfall. The coalition, known as the “traffic light coalition” due to the three party colors involved, is facing a 60 billion euro ($65 billion) budget gap after a court ruling prevented the transfer of unused pandemic funds to support green initiatives and industry.
The INSA institute conducted a weekly poll for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, which revealed that 73% of respondents are dissatisfied with the federal government’s performance. The Green Party, led by Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock, saw a one percentage point decrease from the previous week, with a 12% rating in the survey measuring support for a potential snap election.
Meanwhile, the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Free Democrats (FDP) maintained their support at 16% and 6% respectively. INSA’s head Hermann Binkert noted, “The coalition falls to 34%, 18 percentage points less than in the 2021 federal election. At the moment it does not look like the SPD or the Greens will be able to lead the government after the 2025 general election.”
On the opposition side, the conservative CDU/CSU remained the strongest party with a steady 30% rating, while the far-right AfD gained one percentage point to reach 22%.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged to finalize the 2024 budget by the end of this year in an effort to reassure citizens and investors that the country’s economy will not be adversely affected by the court ruling.
(Reporting by Emma-Victoria Farr, editing by Christina Fincher)
