The survey found that 32% of eligible voters believe Germany has worsened since Merz took office in May, while just 22% say the country has improved. A further 37% perceive no change at all.

  • Lembot_0004English
    313·
    2 days ago

    I’m not from Germany, so what could I know, but Scholz looked extremely indecisive. Did he make any decisions at all? In comparison to Scholz, any chancellor would appear like a crazy reformator. And people mostly dislike reforms.

    • einkorn@feddit.orgEnglish
      25·
      2 days ago

      In comparison to Scholz, any chancellor would appear like a crazy reformator. And people mostly dislike reforms.

      Merz does exactly what has been happening for the last 20 years, except maybe for Scholz’s brief interlude: Axing social systems and handing money to the so-called elites. If anyone spooked the people with reforms, it was Scholz’s government. I very deliberately say his government because his ministers did all the work while he, as you said, mainly stood around trying to act “besonnen”.

      • Mîm@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        has been happening for the last 20 years

        20 years? Did you forget Hartz 4 by Schröder and the Greens?
        No, this has been going on for a lot longer.

    • rustydrd@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      12·
      2 days ago

      Don’t let that fool you. Scholz’ measured attitude may make him seem passive, but his government was very active in terms of reform. Merz talks a big game, but the main contributions of his government are to revert changes from the previous ones, while also raking up massive debt to support his budget (something that he has actively campaigned against and blocked during Scholz’ tenure).

    • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      201·
      2 days ago

      Actually, while Scholz himself was not presenting exactly like a decisive leader, his government was the most productive we ever had with both the most projects on their to-do list and even being able to start or complete the highest percentage of their own project when compared to previous governments.

      • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
        51·
        2 days ago

        We “ever” had is a bit far fetched imo. Certainly more than what happened during most of Merkels reign, but then again Merkel never failed to pass a budget.

        • B-TR3E@feddit.orgEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          You’re too young to remember Helmut Kohl, are you? Merkel was a frantic activist maniac compared to “Birne”.

        • Zacryon@feddit.orgEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          We “ever” had is a bit far fetched imo.

          Yes and no. This was investigated and the numbers do agree with respect to the previous two governments per four years each.

          From Bertelsmann Stiftung (German) translated via DeepL:

          With a total of 453 promises, the 2021 coalition agreement contains around 50 percent more concrete projects than the 2018 coalition agreement and almost two and a half times as many as the 2013 coalition agreement. However, in its three years in government, the traffic light coalition has only implemented just over half of these (52 percent) with 236 projects - 45 percent have been fully implemented and 7 percent partially implemented. 98 projects (22%) were still in the process of being implemented when the traffic light came to an end. Implementation had not even begun on a further 118 projects (26%).

          The traffic light system has therefore failed to meet the high standards it set itself. After the two previous governments each implemented almost 80 percent of their promises, the traffic light balance sheet is much worse, with just over half of the promises implemented. Nevertheless, in absolute figures it has even implemented slightly more projects (+7) than its predecessor government and significantly more (+88) than its predecessor government.

    • federal reverse@feddit.orgMEnglish
      11·
      2 days ago

      Nah, the thing with Merz is that he more-or-less transparently lied during the campaign, brought in multiple lobbyists as minister, brought in multiple politicians with previous corruption scandals as minister/party whip and now these people are behaving exactly as you think they would. They’re trying to do Trump light, and unfortunately they’re not totally unsuccessful in that.

      Externally, Merz is making pointlessly macho announcements to other countries (and is then often not following up, e.g. along with Macron, he gave an ultimatum for a ceasefire to Putin … which just passed and was never heard of again). Domestically, Merz continues verbally beating up the poorest while investigating tax cuts for the richest. Dobrindt is making inhumanity and inefficiency at the border cool again, in the process fucking up relations to neighboring countries like Poland. Reiche is evaluating how to fuck solar and wind power to be able to import more fossil gas. Schnieder is investigating how to fuck the cheap-ish national train ticket while making fossil-powered cars and flights cheaper. Now-party whip Spahn, whose corruption led to somewhere between 2.5 and 10bn€ being lost on FFP2 masks since 2021, is tirelessly repeating that he is being prosecuted for nothing and feels zero guilt. And in the past few days, the CxU parliamentary group prevented the election of a constitutional judge because of a right-wing campaign cooking up a bunch of lies about her.

      That’s a lot of shit, especially given they’re just 70 days in office.