STERN survey
Boris Pistorius: For the majority of Germans he would be the better chancellor
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has much better poll numbers than Chancellor Olaf Scholz, but he is not thinking of giving way to the more popular party colleague.
© Florian Gaertner / Imago Images
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is seen by a majority of Germans as competent, a strong leader and trustworthy. Ideal qualities for the Chancellery. But incumbent Olaf Scholz isn’t even thinking about making room for him.
Almost half of Germans are of the opinion that Boris Pistorius would be a better chancellor than Olaf Scholz (both SPD). The star-Characteristics profile, which the opinion research institute Forsa collects at irregular intervals for top politicians, now shows what exactly the defense minister’s strengths are. 62 percent of Germans say that he speaks clearly, 56 percent think he is competent and 51 percent think he is trustworthy. The last value is an unusually high result given the general crisis of confidence.
Boris Pistorius is considered to be a much stronger leader than Olaf Scholz
Pistorius achieved the biggest advantage over Olaf Scholz when it came to the criterion of leadership. 50 percent attribute this quality to him – 40 percent more than the Chancellor. The profile for Scholz was last queried in December. 49 percent of Germans also find the Defense Minister likeable. Pistorius achieved the lowest level of agreement on the point “knows what moves people”. Only 36 percent trust him to do that. That is still a good value, but shows that the traffic light coalition would still have acceptance problems even after a change in personnel.
The overall good ratings for the Defense Minister are due to the fact that he enjoys a high reputation not only among supporters of the traffic light parties, but also among CDU/CSU voters. 73 percent of Union supporters say that Pistorius is competent. That’s even six percentage points more than among SPD voters. The SPD man can even score points with AfD supporters, who almost never attribute positive qualities to representatives of other parties. In one criterion, he also exceeds the 50 percent mark among right-wing populist clientele. 57 percent of AfD voters think that Pistorius speaks understandably.
Boris Pistorius is likely to have a difficult time with the SPD-Left
Despite the clear survey results, a quick change of chancellor in Berlin is considered extremely unlikely. The incumbent hopes – as in the 2021 election campaign – to be able to catch up. In addition, the right-wing Pistorius will probably find it even more difficult than Scholz to rally the SPD left behind him. And finally, it is pointed out that the head of government is being punished for the disunity in the traffic light coalition, which little would change simply through a change in the Chancellery.
The data was compiled by the market and opinion research institute forsa star and RTL Deutschland on February 22nd and 23rd. Database: 1000 respondents. Statistical margin of error: +/- 3 percentage points