German ruling coalition faces declining support: poll

Berlin: With Germany's federal elections to be held next year, public support for the governing parties keeps dwindling as Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition remains far away from reaching a majority of votes, according to a poll by broadcaster ZDF published on Friday.

If there were a general election next Sunday, Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD) would only get 14 percent of the vote, the Greens were polled at 13 percent and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) at 4 percent, below the 5-percent threshold required to enter the Bundestag, or the lower house of parliament.

The conservative parties Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) climbed by one percentage point and currently have a comfortable lead with 32 percent. The second strongest party with 17 percent was the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), reports Xinhua news agency.

Last week, the political leaders of the coalition averted a crisis that had threatened to break up Scholz's government. Facing a deficit in the billions that had to be closed, a preliminary agreement on a draft budget for 2025 was reached after weeks of deliberations.

Reconciling the interests of the pro-business FDP and the Greens was not easy. Scholz had 23 meetings totaling 80 hours with Finance Minister Christian Lindner and Economics Minister Robert Habeck to discuss the budget. "Everything is great," Scholz said after the lengthy negotiation sessions.

Despite the agreement, only 7 percent of Germans expect cooperation within the government coalition to improve. A large majority, 79 percent, thinks the situation will remain unchanged, according to the ZDF poll among more than 1,300 voters.

Germany's three government parties already recorded heavy losses in the 2024 European elections in June. Scholz's SPD saw its worst result in a nationwide election, with only 13.9 percent of votes, placed third behind the AfD.

The Greens also suffered a bitter defeat, garnering only 11.9 percent of votes, a dramatic drop from the party's record result of 20.5 percent at the previous EU elections in 2019.German ruling coalition faces declining support: poll