Up to his job in office?
More Germans consider Lindner to be competent than Habeck or Scholz
April 9, 2024, 4:36 p.m
The FDP’s poll numbers are poor, but the reputation of the finance minister is better than that of the chancellor and the economics minister. 44 percent of Germans say Lindner is up to his job in office. A majority of Union supporters even see it that way.
In terms of popularity among voters, the FDP’s traffic light coalition doesn’t seem to be doing well: in the current trend barometer, the Liberals are only at 5 percent. In the ranking of politicians, FDP leader Christian Lindner is also only in the lower midfield – directly behind Chancellor Olaf Scholz and five places behind Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck.
And yet apparently more Germans consider the Federal Finance Minister to be competent than the Social Democratic Chancellor and the Green Vice-Chancellor: 44 percent of Germans said in a survey by the opinion research institute Forsa for the RTL/ntv trend barometer that Lindner was up to his job in office. Only 33 percent of Habeck say this, and only 30 percent of Scholz say this. 47 percent say Lindner is not up to the task. This is significantly higher for Scholz and Habeck: 64 percent say this about the Chancellor, 59 percent about the Economics Minister.
Only SPD supporters (72 percent) have confidence in Scholz’s suitability for the office of Chancellor. The majority of supporters of the Greens (77 percent) and those of the SPD (53 percent) have confidence in Habeck’s skills, while the majority of supporters of the CDU/CSU (58 percent) and especially those of the FDP (86 percent) trust Lindner’s skills.
At 72 percent, a large majority of Germans also believe that a dispute between the SPD, Greens and FDP over the next budget will weaken cohesion within the traffic light coalition. Only a minority of 21 percent believe that the dispute will have no impact on the stability of the federal government.
This Wednesday the SPD, Greens and FDP will meet for a coalition committee. One of the topics is likely to be the budget for the coming year. The ministries should submit savings proposals to the Federal Finance Minister by April 19th, on the basis of which the Federal Minister of Finance should then draw up the budget.
Lindner has already made it clear that he wants to further commit the federal government to austerity measures. “Today’s debts are tomorrow’s tax increases,” he said on Sunday on Caren Miosga’s talk show. “All the social goals that we pursue and the ecological projects that our society has have one prerequisite: a stable economic foundation.” On Monday, the FDP passed a paper entitled “Performance and work must be worth it again”.
If the Germans have their way, development aid in particular would be cut – but given the budget deficit running into the double-digit billions, that wouldn’t be of much use. In the Forsa survey, 45 percent said that savings should be made, particularly in development aid. Around a third are in favor of cuts in social spending (31 percent) or spending on climate protection (29 percent), and around one in five are in favor of cutting spending on the Bundeswehr (22 percent). Only 13 percent of all respondents are in favor of cuts in spending on infrastructure and transport. 17 percent are against cuts in all of the five areas mentioned.
Cuts in spending on development aid are primarily favored by supporters of the FDP and AfD. The majority of supporters of the FDP and Union are calling for cuts in social spending, while spending cuts in the area of climate protection are most likely for the supporters of the AfD and the BSW. BSW supporters are also the only group of voters whose majority is in favor of spending cuts in the Bundeswehr.
Germans are divided on the question of whether the debt brake should be suspended for the 2025 budget. 46 percent are in favor, 50 percent against. The majority of supporters of the SPD and the Greens are in favor of suspending the debt brake in the next budgets, while a majority of supporters of the BSW, the Union and especially the FDP and the AfD are in favor of strictly sticking to it.
The data was collected by the market and opinion research institute Forsa for the RTL/ntv trend barometer on behalf of RTL Deutschland on April 4th and 5th. Database: 1001 respondents. Statistical margin of error: plus/minus 3 percentage points.
Further information about Forsa here.
Forsa surveys commissioned by RTL Deutschland.