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Support for German Greens plummets — poll

Annalena Baerbock is one of the German Greens' most recognisable faces. Credit: Getty

September 20, 2024 - 3:20pm

More than a third of Germans want the Green Party to have no role in the next government under any circumstances, according to new figures from pollster Allensbach published by Stuttgarter Zeitung. 

The Greens were second only to the AfD, which 54% of respondents wanted to have no part in government — though the Right-wing party also received higher support than the Greens. The Greens only received 10% support, compared to 35.5% for the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union alliance.

This polling marks a rapid decline for the once-popular Greens, which secured a 15% share in the 2021 national elections. Germany’s push for green energy, which has included the end of nuclear power production, has been blamed for the country’s economic decline. Meanwhile, public interest in the issue of climate change has declined as Europeans become more concerned about the war in Ukraine and related energy issues.

Greens see plunging popularity in Germany
Germans want the following parties to have no role in government

Meanwhile, the AfD is polling at 17%, pulling ahead of the Greens for popular support despite seeing such high levels of unpopularity. The party recently won the eastern state of Thuringia in a major victory.

The Greens did not fare any better in polling of various coalitions, with only 3% reporting that an SPD-FDP-Green coalition was good for the country and similarly poor results for a Union-FDP-Greens coalition, according to the new poll.

Much of the fall in support for the Greens has been driven by Germany's worsening economic outlook. The country narrowly avoided a recession this year, and its economy contracted in the second quarter. It was also the worst-performing major world economy in 2023.

None of this bodes well for Chancellor Olaf Scholz or the governing coalition, which have been divided over foreign policy and the national budget to the point of inspiring speculation about a possible government breakdown. Dubbed the traffic-light coalition, their time in office has seen low levels of public satisfaction with national leadership. A botched plan to regulate home boilers and an effort to use Covid funding in service of climate plans served as pivotal moments for the party’s declining relationship with the German public.

As for the Greens, the party's Katharina Fegebank remained optimistic about their future in a recent interview. The Greens, she said, who “are currently going through a kind of slump at the federal level and in some states and are also being made a bit of a scapegoat for everything, will come back.” She added: “We are here to stay.”


is UnHerd’s US correspondent.

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El Uro
El Uro
20 days ago

As for the Greens, the party’s Katharina Fegebank remained optimistic about their future in a recent interview. The Greens, she said, who “are currently going through a kind of slump at the federal level and in some states and are also being made a bit of a scapegoat for everything, will come back.” She added: “We are here to stay.”
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The Green Party should be renamed the Party of Certified Morons and its members should be banned from running for any public office.

Adrian Smith
Adrian Smith
20 days ago

Here in the UK we don’t even need the Greens to destroy our economy with lunatic net zero fanaticism, we just need two tier, free gear Keir Granny Harmer, with his twin economic vandals Miliband and Lammy

Philip Stott
Philip Stott
19 days ago
Reply to  Adrian Smith

You forgot to mention Rachel Thieves.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
18 days ago
Reply to  Adrian Smith

that pretty much describes green parties in every country.

Jim Veenbaas
Jim Veenbaas
20 days ago

I truly hope Germany, Europe and Britain wake up and realize the profound damage being caused by net zero. As a Canadian, I hope we look beyond our backyard and understand this is what will happen to us in 10 years if we continue down this path.

John Tyler
John Tyler
20 days ago

Marxist eco-warriors love seeing themselves as scapegoats after they’ve caused maximum inefficiency.

Santiago Excilio
Santiago Excilio
20 days ago

Once the lights start going out, houses get cold and mobiles no longer have receptio then support for the greens (everywhere) will dry up.

Josef Švejk
Josef Švejk
19 days ago

At last Europeans are waking up to the fact that the Green Party is not just a collection of eccentrics but an anti Renaissance, anti rational fascist cabal. Vote them out anywhere they pop their gormless heads.

Bernard Davis
Bernard Davis
18 days ago
Reply to  Josef Švejk

The warmongering zeal of the German Greens with regard to the Ukraine situation is truly astonishing to “greenie” folk in other countries, where environmentalists and lefty pacifists are usually natural allies. Is it just a German thing? One recalls that the whole back-to-nature romantic ideal was a prominent part of the “Kraft durch Freude” movement in the Nazi era.

J Bryant
J Bryant
19 days ago

Ah, the sweet sound of ideology colliding with the buzz saw of reality.

John Riordan
John Riordan
19 days ago

We’re seeing the same thing repeated in most nations these days: Green idealism, so popular with people when it’s only words, drops off a cliff as soon as the realities are faced. People simply do not want to be cold and poor. Fossil fuels let the genie out of the bottle and proved that mass-prosperity is viable.

No politician should expect to win democratic contests by talking about suppressing the growth that continuously extends mass-prosperity, and quite frankly they ought to be ashamed of themselves if that’s all they have to offer and are still planning on foisting it on people who don’t want it.

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
19 days ago

It’s less scapegoating than the fact that the German Green party is stuffed with morons, blind ideologues and lunatics with only the most tenuous grip on reality and zero capacity for self reflection.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
18 days ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

isnt that the case with every green movement in every western country?

Fabio Paolo Barbieri
Fabio Paolo Barbieri
19 days ago

The Greens are primarily a refuge for the most head-in-the-air part of the left, those who think that Die Linke are too bourgeois. The environment is mostly an excuse: in particular, on one of the major issues of the day, they have come out for unrestricted and uncontrolled free immigration, with not a word on how that would affect the environment in an already overbuilt and overcrowded Germany.

Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke
19 days ago

I wonder if the tide is going out for the Greens everywhere.