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Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Senegal
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
Annalena Baerbock and Friedrich Merz did it, Olaf Scholz did not: the chancellor has not traveled to Kyiv so far.
This week he is visiting Africa.
In Senegal, Scholz spoke about a possible energy cooperation, in Niger he acknowledged the deployment of Bundeswehr soldiers.
The Chancellor said a week ago that he did not want to travel to Ukraine for a photo shoot.
When he goes to Kyiv, it should "always be about very specific things."
Scholz does not find approval for his course in the Ukraine crisis - and his party has to watch as the political competition pulls away or catches up: The Union is increasing the gap to the Social Democrats, whose lead over the Greens is in turn melting.
This is shown by the evaluation of the SPIEGEL Sunday question, collected by the opinion research institute Civey.
If there were federal elections next Sunday, the Union would get 27 percent.
The SPD would receive 22 percent, four percentage points less than just after the beginning of the war.
The Greens are at 20 percent, just behind the Social Democrats - the difference between the parties is within the statistical error tolerance of up to 2.5 percentage points.
According to the survey, the AfD would remain stable at eleven percent, the FDP would come to eight percent, and the crisis-ridden left received around five percent of the vote.
(Read the background to the Civey methodology here.)
The survey results over time show that the Union is expanding its lead somewhat - and the Greens could possibly overtake the Social Democrats if current developments continue.
This is mainly due to the SPD's loss of approval, less to the Greens' gains.
They have leveled off at 20 percent for about a month, but have increased by around five percentage points since the start of the war in Ukraine.
The Greens last experienced a comparable survey high in August last year.
After that, however, they collapsed again, reaching 14.8 percent in the federal elections.
One reason for the good values of the Greens is the popularity of two cabinet members.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock are at the top of the SPIEGEL government monitor.
They are the only two members of the cabinet who are rated positively on average.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is in fifth place.
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