Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has been Secretary of Defense for almost two months. The move was a U-turn for the CDU boss. The goal: Kramp-Karrenbauer wants to bring as possible Chancellor candidate in position. Does it work? The SPIEGEL government monitor shows: not really.
Accordingly, Chancellor Angela Merkel remains in unchallenged place in the comparison with the ministers, while Kramp-Karrenbauer has ranked far behind - and last time slipped again.
Now, the Minister of Defense occupies place 12 of 14, together with Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU). Only one cuts off worse: Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer (CSU).
Please enable javascript in your browser.
The SPIEGEL government monitor shows in cooperation with the opinion research institute Civey the satisfaction of the population with the government, the coalition parties and especially with the individual ministers and the chancellor. To compare the representative ratings, Civey uses a scoring method. (Read more about the procedure here.) The best possible index is 200, the weakest result would be -200.
One thing is clear: Kramp-Karrenbauer has not taken on a job with which she can easily score. With the Ministry of Defense, she inherited a department that is plagued by problems: the bad reputation of the Bundeswehr, the dispute over the Gorch Fock, the consultant affair.
Already Kramp-Karrenbauer predecessor Ursula von der Leyen was always rated bad in the government monitor. At the last evaluation in early July, just before she went to Brussels to become EU Commissioner, came from the Leyen to a value of -123. Even there was only scouring behind it.
Kramp-Karrenbauer's current value (-109) is better in comparison but still not good. And just the latest development speaks against the new minister. Because in the tendency the satisfaction of the population with Kramp Karrenbauer sinks: Recently she has lost about 20 points in just over a month. At the moment, only Heiko Maas (SPD) experiences a similar descent. The satisfaction of the population with the Foreign Minister has dropped by 14 points compared to the beginning of July.
Please enable javascript in your browser.
And the winners since the last evaluation? Olaf Scholz, who is currently fighting for the SPD presidency, stands out. The Minister of Finance has improved by nine points since the beginning of July. And also the satisfaction with the government as a whole as well as with both coalition partners has increased significantly: The Federal Government has increased by 16 points, the Union by 14 as well as the SPD by nine.