Crises determined the first year of the traffic light coalition. And cabinet members don’t always come off well in the evaluation. According to the RTL/ntv trend barometer, almost all department heads are losing trust. Only a minister can improve – and that very clearly.
According to the RTL/ntv trend barometer, after a year of the traffic light coalition, there has been a clear loss of trust for almost all members of the federal cabinet. With one exception, all cabinet members received significantly worse values ??than a year ago. The opinion research institute Forsa asked citizens at the beginning of December whether they think the ministers are suitable for their office or not and compared this with the values ??from December 2021.
While in December 2021, 14 out of 16 cabinet members were still considered suitable than unsuitable by more respondents, there are now only 7. In contrast, 9 cabinet members are currently considered more unsuitable than suitable – in 2021 this was only the case for two heads of department Case.
The only minister whose rating has improved at all within a year (by 48 points on balance) is Foreign Office chief Annalena Baerbock. At the end of 2021, the Green politician was the least likely to be trusted with her new office among all members of the cabinet. A year ago it was still in last place, but now, after a year of government work, it is in second place.
The ministers who, after a year in government, are still more likely than not to trust Baerbock, albeit with a significant loss of trust, include Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD), who leads the ranking, and Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens), head of the Chancellery Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD), Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP).
Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP), Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) and Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) have a particularly negative trust balance (-25 percentage points or more). Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) is by far the last place with -62 percentage points. Wissing and Lambrecht are also the two cabinet members who, at 55 percent (Wissing) and 75 percent (Lambrecht) and 75 percent (Lambrecht) respectively, do not (any longer) trust their ministerial office.
Interesting aspect: For some cabinet members (in particular Schmidt, Development Minister Svenja Schulze [SPD], Family Minister Lisa Paus [Greens], Stark-Watzinger and Geywitz), a relatively large proportion of around a third (still) does not dare to assess their suitability to.
Meanwhile, Baerbock is also one of the front runners when it comes to awareness. As early as 2021, she was the best-known member of the government with 97 percent. Now she reaches 99 percent – just like Lauterbach, who was known to 96 percent of those surveyed a year ago. Habeck, Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the FDP (98 each) and Cem Özdemir (95) also scored more than 90 percent – just like almost all cabinet members were able to increase their awareness. Schulze (55), Stark-Watzinger (50), Paus (49), Schmidt (48) and Geywitz (46) have the lowest levels of awareness.
The data was collected by the market and opinion research institute Forsa on behalf of RTL Germany from December 7th to 9th, 2022. Database: 1001 respondents. Statistical error tolerance: /- 3 percentage points.
More information about Forsa here
Forsa surveys commissioned by RTL Germany
