German elections: Polls show growing hostility to the Social Democrats and other capitalist parties

 

German elections: Polls show growing hostility to the Social Democrats and other capitalist parties

By
Johannes Stern

22 July 2017

Two months before the Bundestag (federal parliament) elections, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) chancellor candidate, Martin Schulz, is running far behind current Chancellor Angela Merkel (Christian Democratic Union, CDU). On Wednesday, polling institute Forsa reported that Merkel had been able to extend her lead over Schulz by another point to 30 percent. If the chancellor could be directly elected, 52 percent of all those eligible to vote would cast their ballot for Merkel and only 22 percent for Schulz.

Manfred Güllner, Managing Director of Forsa, said the situation of the SPD was “probably hopeless.” This is putting it kindly. The SPD is rightly hated for implementing the anti-social Agenda 2010 welfare and labour “reforms,” which plunged millions into poverty and created the largest low-wage sector in Europe. Especially in the working class, the SPD has lost almost all support in recent years. According to a recent study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), only 17 percent of SPD voters are workers. In 2000, it was still 44 percent.

The rejection of the SPD is greatest among young people. Another recent survey by YouGov and the youth magazine Bravo shows that only five percent of young people age 14 to 17 feel their concerns are addressed by Schulz. He trails behind Gregor Gysi of the Left Party (six percent) and far behind Merkel (28 percent). None of the respondents would vote for the lead candidates of the Left Party (Dietmar Bartsch) and the Greens (Katrin Göring-Eckardt); the leading candidates of the right-wing extremist Alliance for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel and Alexander Gauland, would also not get…

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