In recent days, leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which currently leads the ruling coalition, have been discussing who to nominate as their candidate for chancellor in the early elections set for February.
The current head of government, Olaf Scholz, has expressed his desire to run for re-election, but he has the lowest approval rating (31.4) among all major German politicians. In contrast, another Social Democrat, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, is the most popular politician in Germany (52.8).
Several prominent members and regional branches of the SPD supported Pistorius. However, the majority within the party leadership remained loyal to Scholz. In the end, they prevailed: on Thursday, the Minister of Defense announced that he would not run for chancellor.
According to the INSA polling institute, Scholz is already trailing behind other candidates—Friedrich Merz from the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and Robert Habeck from the “Alliance 90/The Greens.”
