Only 25% of Germans think the Social Democrats are doing a good job, down from 46% in March, according to the Insa poll for the Bild am Sonntag weekly newspaper. By contrast, a record 62% of Germans think Scholz – who was deputy chancellor under veteran conservative leader Angela Merkel in the previous coalition government – is doing a bad job, compared to just 39% in March. Since taking office, Scholz has had to deal with the war in Ukraine, an energy crisis, skyrocketing inflation and now drought – all pushing Europe’s largest economy to the brink of recession. Critics accused him of not showing sufficient leadership. Support for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) was just 19%, the Insa poll showed, well behind the opposition conservatives and junior coalition partners the Greens, and below the 25.7% the SPD took in the federal elections. elections last year. Some 65% of Germans are dissatisfied with the work of Germany’s three-party coalition government as a whole, up from 43% in March. The poll comes after a particularly difficult week for Scholz. First, he got into hot water by failing to immediately counter Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a joint press conference in Berlin when he accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts.” Then on Friday, opposition MPs in Hamburg accused him of concealing the truth at a hearing into a major tax fraud that took place during his tenure as mayor of the northern port city – charges he denies, instead protesting memory gaps. (Reporting by Birgit Mittwollen and Sarah Marsh; Editing by Gareth Jones)
