More and more noise around the loudspeakers: AfD chairwoman Weidel, Chrupalla in mid-January before a parliamentary group meeting in Berlin
Image: dpa
Pollsters want to reflect the mood of the population. But do they also influence mood? And does this strengthen the populists?
ENo matter when you read the newspaper, look on the Internet or watch TV news, there is always some new political poll. Olaf Scholz has dropped by one point in the popularity ranking, Sahra Wagenknecht has risen by one; Christian Lindner was recently in the lower midfield, but is now apparently out of the woods, only Robert Habeck is in free fall again. But wasn't it all the other way around a week ago and in another newspaper?
Germans' opinions on issues (“Would you buy an electric car?”) and parties are also being asked at ever shorter intervals. Whether it is the support for the coalition after a crisis summit (“traffic light disaster!”), the situation of the Berlin CDU before and after the love outing of the governing mayor Kai Wegner (“Berlin CDU on the rise!”) or the founding of Wagenknecht's new party BSW (“Bright start for Wagenknecht!”): Almost every day – this statement is representative – a water level report is printed, tweeted and sent somewhere.