Survey: 4 out of 10 Germans worried about political future

A survey published Wednesday has found that four out of 10 voters in Germany are worried about the country's political future.

With less than seven weeks to go before the February 23 federal election, 39% of respondents told YouGov pollsters that they were concerned, and 15% said they were frustrated with political leaders.

The governing center-left Social Democrats (SPD) of Chancellor Olaf Scholz have "trust and competence problems," the study found, with 50% of those polled saying that they do not want the SPD to be part of the next government. About 46% of people said that the SPD was responsible for Germany's current economic woes, and a mere 11% said they felt the party was competent to handle the economy.

The survey also showed that even past SPD voters had lost faith, with only 55% of those who chose the center-left in 2021 still feeling like the party cared about them.

Conservatives have clear lead

As in other polls, the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the CSU, were clearly in the lead less than two months out from the election.

Some 29% of respondents said they would be voting CDU/CSU, followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) with 21%. 

The SPD, on the other hand, is looking at a historic low of 16%, while their coalition partners the Greens were coming in fourth with 14%.

As for the Free Democrats (FDP), the pro-business party that withdrew from the coalition in November and triggered the collapse of government that led to the early elections, they were hovering around the 5% hurdle necessary to enter the Bundestag.

The YouGov survey recorded the opinions of 1,908 voters in early January.

es/lo (dpa, YouGov)