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Prime Minister Laschet in the disaster area
Photo: Christoph Hardt / imago images / Future Image
The pictures and news from the flood area are depressing; more could be added to the 170 fatalities so far.
At the same time, the catastrophe gave new impetus to demands for more consistent climate protection.
But which of the chancellor candidates would be most clearly committed to combating climate change after the federal election on September 26th if they win?
In a survey by the opinion research institute Civey for SPIEGEL, people rate the climate competence of the Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet the least.
Only 26 percent are of the opinion that the CDU leader, as Chancellor, would make a decisive effort to tackle climate change.
With the SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz it is 35 percent and with Annalena Baerbock, top candidate of the Greens, even 56 percent.
(
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about the Civey method here.
)
Another survey also gives indications of how the flood disaster in western Germany could change the election campaign.
Everyone or every third person therefore thinks that climate policy has become more important for their own voting decision in September after the storm disaster.
Even if the topic has not become more important to two out of three respondents, the basic trend remains: voters have long rated environmental and climate policy as the second most important area for elections.
Almost half of Germans state that this policy area will have the greatest influence on their voting decision.
Only the issue of pension and social security systems is even more important to the voters.
Among Green supporters, 71 percent, as expected, share the view that climate policy has become more important for their voting decision.
Among supporters of the CDU and CSU, on the other hand, more than two thirds of those questioned see their voting intentions not being affected by the devastating floods.
Laschet deteriorates in the direct election question
Recently, it was closely observed how the top candidates behaved in the affected areas.
While Laschet, as Prime Minister, had to show his presence in the affected regions in North Rhine-Westphalia and Scholz, as Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor, was also indirectly responsible, Baerbock also traveled to the flood areas.
She deliberately refrained from accompanying the press.
The only one whose reputation has suffered in the past few days, however, was Laschet.
In the case of direct election as Chancellor, Laschet would only vote 21 percent of those surveyed.
He is now on a par with Scholz and Baerbock.
However, the Chancellor is not directly elected.
The survey says something about the personal popularity ratings of the candidates and less about their actual chances of moving into the Chancellery.
Nevertheless: A month ago Laschet had clearly led the survey and was well ahead of Scholz and Baerbock with 27 percent.
The direct election support for Laschet sank even before the first storms in the west on July 14th.
But only in the past few days it went significantly downhill for the Union candidate.
He lost four percentage points within a week.
The Union parties also lose.
In the Sunday question, the CDU and CSU currently have 26 percent of the vote.
Immediately before the flood it was three percentage points more.
This also reduces the gap to the pursuers - although the Greens have stagnated almost unchanged at 21 percent since the beginning of the month.
The third strongest force would continue to be the SPD with 17 percent.
The upward trend in the meantime and the good poll numbers for Olaf Scholz do not seem to help his SPD to achieve a better result.
The FDP and AfD would come to eleven percent, and for the left the move into the Bundestag could continue to be a tremendous game with six percent.