Can things get any worse for Olaf Scholz? | The Spectator - 0 views
www.spectator.co.uk/...-get-any-worse-for-olaf-scholz
germany chancellor SPD evaluation 2023 politics
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A survey earlier this month suggested that only a fifth of voters are currently satisfied with the chancellor’s work – the worst result recorded since this type of polling began a quarter of a century ago
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If they could pick a chancellor from any political party, only 5 per cent said they would choose Scholz.
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Soaring energy prices mean that 5.5 million Germans say they weren’t able to heat their house properly over the past year
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there have been further investigations into his alleged connections to a tax fraud scheme that happened when he was mayor of Hamburg (Scholz denies any wrongdoing).
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‘Food…petrol and energy: everything has become so expensive that I have nothing left at the end of the month. There was a time when I could go out sometimes, or go to the cinema. Such extras are no longer possible.’
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Only around a quarter think he is fit to be chancellor, down from over 60 per cent when he took office in December 2021.
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Recent scandals and spectacular failings of his government have cemented the public’s impression of incompetence.
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three quarters said they had to make cuts in their spending on consumer items and leisure time activities.
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Last month, a bombshell ruling by the constitutional court declared the creative accounting of his administration illegal, blowing a €60 billion (£52 billion) hole in public finances and an even bigger one in what remained of Scholz’s reputation as a crisis chancellor.
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What’s worse is that he doesn’t appear to care about the increasing despair in his country. Naturally aloof, his mannerisms and rhetoric sometimes drift into outright dismissiveness
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Currently only 15 per cent would vote for his centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). That marks a 10 point-drop in support from the last election and the lowest result in the SPD’s post-war history by some margin.
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One would think that such catastrophic loss of confidence would lead to serious soul-searching by Scholz or, failing that, within the SPD, which still thinks of itself as one of Germany’s main political parties. But there is no sign of any such critical reflection.