The popularity ratings of the Greens are in decline – not just since the Graichen affair. According to an expert, the party’s will to reform is overwhelming the voters. But there isn’t really an alternative.
Friday afternoon at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. Minister Robert Habeck wants to present plans for solar expansion. But here, too, he has to justify the mistakes of his State Secretary Patrick Graichen. The affair also affects Habeck’s personal approval ratings.
Since February he has ARD Germany trend clearly lost support. Habeck said his personal values were not up for debate at the press conference in the ministry. That’s not what he’s looking at.
Habeck pulls values down – but not alone
But does Habeck’s crash harm the Greens? Yes, says the political scientist Sabine Kropp in an interview with the ARD Capital Studio. If the personal driving force of a party loses approval, this also affects the overall assessment of the voters for the party.
The Greens have lost around a third of their support since last summer. In August 2022 they were in ARD Germany trend still at 23 percent. Now it’s only 16 percent. But the complete loss cannot be explained by the Graichen affair and Habeck’s bad values. The descent of the eco-party began last year, before the allegations against Graichen became known.
change fatigue is spreading
Saturday evening in Leipzig. The Greens are celebrating their 30th anniversary in East Germany – an appointment for the green heart. Monika Lazar, a former member of the Bundestag, also came. When asked about the problems of the Greens, she says that the green core is clearly visible. Probably too much for some. A lot is being done right now, she thinks it’s more like “that people say, not too fast and not too much.”
Are the Greens asking too much of the population? Ilka Heinze is a business psychologist at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. Among other things, she deals with change processes and so-called change management. The mode of action can be transferred from change processes in companies to change processes in societies.
The people in Germany are just tired of change. “Because they’ve just been drained by too many changes over the last few years and they’re just exhausted and can’t take any more change”.
War in Ukraine, Corona, climate change – one crisis of the century followed the next. This obviously makes it difficult for the Greens to get broad social majorities for their projects. The opposite is the case. A knowledge from the current ARD Germany trend is particularly explosive for the Greens: the question of the potential voters. Voters are asked which parties they could imagine voting for.
Far removed from the popularity of the popular parties
The people’s parties CDU/CSU and SPD come together to values of more than 50 percent – regions in which the Greens have already advanced. But in the current ARD-Dgermany trend did they crash? With a drop of 13 percentage points, they still have a potential voter base of 37 percent – on a par with the FDP. This is not a region in which popular parties move.
The goal of the Chancellery will probably be a long way off again for the time being. Political scientist Kropp says: The Greens must also try to cover the needs of the broad middle class, “so in their communication, for example, take back a bit of exaggerated positions.” The party is caught in a dilemma. The Greens have aspirations to fight the climate crisis, and that arguably doesn’t allow for a breather. However, many voters are apparently more longing for a time to catch their breath.