Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, said he would stand for re-election despite being the most unpopular chancellor in the country’s modern history.
A recent poll found only 16 per cent of Germans are satisfied with his fractious traffic-light coalition, which succeeded Angela Merkel’s government in 2021, and only 18 per cent are pleased with Mr Scholz personally.
It marks the lowest score since 1997, when Helmut Kohl was the German leader and lost the public’s confidence with a scandal over “secret” party bank accounts.
However, Mr Scholz maintained he would stand in the next election in 2025, believing he had a good chance at success.
“I firmly expect that the SPD and I will have such a strong mandate in 2025 that we will also lead the next government,” Mr Scholz told Tagesspiegel in a rare interview.
Mr Scholz said the bad polling numbers were a consequence of the media’s focusing on the infighting in his party and who could best work the cameras.
“Too often all that is reported is: Who is performing well? Who is misbehaving? Who looks pretty or has particularly clever words?” But he added that “we’re not making an episode of ‘Good Times, Bad Times’ - it’s about politics,” he said, referring to the German soap opera.