Shift to the left

German voters have given the ruling center-right coalition its lowest approval rating ever recorded by public broadcaster ARD in its regular survey, with 83 percent of respondents saying they were unsatisfied with the government's work.

The approval rating for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats tied with that of the opposition Social Democrats at 31 percent. Merkel's junior coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats led by Vice Chancellor Guido Westerwelle, received the lowest score of all major parties with five percent.

The Green Party, traditional coalition partner for the Social Democrats, received 17 percent of the respondents' approval. That gives the two main center-left parties greater support than all other parties in parliament for the first time since October 2002.

The socialist Left Party received 10 percent of voter support, and all other parties received six percent.

Change in support for the various parties was minimal, with the biggest shift being the Christian Democrats' drop of two percentage points. Still, it signalled a growing trend of dissatisfaction with Angela Merkel's coalition government.

In what appeared to be a shift in optimism, one half of the respondents said they agreed with the statement that the economic situation in Germany would get better in a year's time.

Author: Andrew Bowen
Editor: Nancy Isenson