In December 2021, there were signs of departure in Germany.
Long-time Chancellor Angela Merkel left office after 16 years – Olaf Scholz succeeded her.
With him, Germany got its first traffic light alliance at federal level, a coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP.
The alliance called itself the “progress coalition”; Scholz took his oath of office as Federal Chancellor on December 8, 2021.
Well, after year one of the "progress coalition", many Germans make an unflattering judgment about the ministers of the traffic light: When asked about the satisfaction with the work of the individual cabinet members, in December none of them received a positive rating.
This is shown by the government monitor surveyed by the opinion research institute Civey on behalf of SPIEGEL.
You can read the background to the Civey methodology here
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In the previous survey, a majority rated the work of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Economics Minister Robert Habeck positively.
Both are still among the ministers with the highest satisfaction ratings - but Habeck in particular lost significantly compared to the summer.
The index is calculated from the satisfaction values.
These look like this in detail:
At the end of August, 45 percent of those surveyed stated that they were satisfied with Habeck's work, but now only 33 percent are.
The values for Baerbock are better, she comes to an agreement of 38 percent.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD, 33 percent) and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD, 31 percent) are rated similarly.
26 percent were satisfied with the work of Prime Minister Scholz.
The liberal cabinet members come off comparatively badly:
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) only gets 16 percent approval.
Lindner recently had his best value with 31 percent satisfaction at the beginning of March.
The Germans also rate the work of Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann and Transport Minister Volker Wissing clearly negatively.
The most unpopular cabinet member, however, is Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht.
Just nine percent are satisfied or rather satisfied with their work.
Among other things, Lambrecht has been criticized for the sluggish modernization of the Bundeswehr and the lack of ammunition in the armed forces.
Bad report card after year one
The dissatisfaction is also reflected in the approval ratings for the general work of the parties.
Only 13 percent are satisfied with the government work of the FDP, only 25 percent praise the work of the SPD.
The green ones do best.
29 percent stated that they were satisfied with the party's government work.
So it is hardly surprising that the general government work was also rated negatively.
Almost two thirds of Germans, 63 percent, are "rather dissatisfied" or even "very dissatisfied" with the traffic light.
The value was only worse between mid-September and October (65 percent).
The federal government received its best rating to date in mid-March.
At that time, only 43 percent of those surveyed said they were dissatisfied with the government's work, while 40 percent said they were satisfied.
The good values at that time could be related to Scholz's government statement in response to the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Scholz had promised a "turning point" and with it significantly more money for the Bundeswehr and arms deliveries for Ukraine.
A majority of Germans supported this course at the time.
Self-praise from the chancellor
The chancellor himself sees the promised turning point as a cornerstone of his previous work - and gives himself a good report after year one of the traffic light.
Because of the destruction that can be seen every day in Ukraine, it was right to support Ukraine financially, humanitarianally and with weapons, said Scholz in his weekly video message "Kanzler Kompakt" on Sunday.
He didn't skimp on his own praise either: the traffic light decided on a higher minimum wage, higher child benefits and extended housing benefits.
Another goal was "that Germany can operate in a climate-neutral manner".
Therefore, a number of laws have been passed to promote renewable energies.
SPD defeated in Sunday question
The electorate does not share the enthusiasm - the Union is currently clearly ahead in the favor of the electorate.
If there were a federal election on Sunday, 28 percent of those polled would vote for the CDU or CSU.
Behind them, the Greens (21 percent) and SPD (19 percent) are fighting for second place.
The FDP reached 7 percent.
Especially for the liberals, things have been going downhill since the traffic light participation – the FDP was one of the losers in the state elections that have taken place since then.
This is probably one of the reasons why there are always disputes at the traffic lights, because the parties want to distinguish themselves.
The traffic light partners are arguing about a possible speed limit, for weeks there was bitter discussion about extending the service life of the nuclear power plants, until Scholz finally intervened with a word of power (read a conversation with traffic light politicians on the anniversary here).
The interpretation suggests that the constant friction in the three-party alliance is reflected in the overall assessment of the coalition's work.
The continuously updated SPIEGEL government monitor can be found here.
