Berlin Before the Election: Dissatisfaction with Senate Reaches New Record High
According to Infratest Dimap, only one in five people is satisfied with the work of the Senate ahead of the Berlin House of Representatives election. This makes the Berlin state government the most unpopular regional government in Germany ahead of any election in recent memory.
- Satisfaction with Senate at record low according to pre-election survey by Infratest Dimap
- Berlin has the least popular state government of any German state ahead of an election
- Leading candidates are largely unknown
- The city's economic situation rated significantly worse than in 2023
Immediately before the Berlin House of Representatives election on September 20, satisfaction among the public with the work of the Senate has reached the lowest level ever recorded in Berlin ahead of an election. Only 20 percent of respondents in a representative survey conducted by polling institute Infratest Dimap said they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the Senate. This is the lowest figure recorded in a pre-election survey since 2001. 77 percent said they were "less than" or "not at all" satisfied. Berlin's governing coalition of CDU and SPD thereby ranks last in a nationwide comparison, trailing in popularity behind governments in Saxony-Anhalt (31 percent), Thuringia (39) and Bremen (41) in pre-election surveys. The highest satisfaction ratings nationwide were most recently recorded ahead of elections in Schleswig-Holstein (75) and Hamburg (61).
More Unpopular Than Red-Red-Green
Among Berlin supporters of the governing CDU, 56 percent rate the work of the Senate negatively, according to the poll. The same applies to 72 percent of supporters of the governing SPD. The Senate is even more unpopular among supporters of the Greens (82 percent), the Left (83) and the AfD (96). The work of the current state government is thus rated worse overall than that of its predecessor government of SPD, Greens and Left, which already recorded an exceptionally low approval rating of 24 percent in February 2023.
Candidates Only Moderately Popular
This year's election campaign has not been defined by popular candidates. Among the leading candidates, Elif Eralp (Left) records the highest approval rating of 27 percent when asked about satisfaction with their political work. She is followed by CDU candidate Stefan Evers (21 percent), ahead of SPD politician Steffen Krach (20), Werner Graf of the Greens (11) and AfD lead candidate Kristin Brinker (11). However, a large proportion of respondents either did not provide an assessment of individual candidates or said they did not know them. This was particularly the case for Green candidate Werner Graf (66 percent) and AfD candidate Kristin Brinker (60 percent). For SPD politician Steffen Krach (46) and CDU candidate Stefan Evers (46), the figure was just under half. Left lead candidate Elif Eralp (43) achieved the best result in this regard.
Berlin's Economic Situation Widely Rated as Worse
Infratest Dimap has once again surveyed eligible voters about the economic situation in the capital. The results show a worse general mood than in February 2023 ahead of the last election to the House of Representatives. 75 percent of those surveyed said Berlin was in a "not so good" or "poor" economic situation – twelve percent more than before the 2023 election. This assessment was shared by a clear majority of supporters across all parties. A particularly large proportion of AfD supporters view Berlin as being in a "not so good" or "poor" situation, while among Green Party supporters this still applies to 64 percent of those surveyed. For the representative survey, Infratest Dimap interviewed 1,171 eligible voters in Berlin on behalf of ARD.
Note: An earlier version of this article omitted the information that this represents the lowest poll figure immediately before an election to the House of Representatives. We have updated the article accordingly and apologize for the error.
