A poll conducted by media firm Funke Media has found that two-thirds of Germans believe that Social Democrat (SPD) leader Martin Schulz is the biggest political loser of 2017.
The past year has seen few ups and many downs for the former European Parliament president who took over leadership of the SPD earlier in March. After leading the SPD into their worst national election result in recent memory, Schulz has been declared a loser by the German public, Die Welt reports.
Only 23 per cent of those surveyed said that Schulz came out of 2017 as a winner and in a separate poll, taken by the German version of Playboy magazine, the SPD leader came second behind Alternative for Germany (AfD) head Alexander Gauland for “angriest politician”.
Schulz was followed by the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) leader Horst Seehofer at 66 per cent and then by Chancellor Angela Merkel at 53 per cent.
The results follow another poll that showed that one in two Germans were in favour of Chancellor Merkel resigning from office before the next election scheduled in 2021. The chancellor’s favourability was hit hard after the failure of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party to form a working coalition government with the Green Party and the libertarian Free Democrats (FDP).
With the so-called “Jamaica coalition” now off the table, many are looking at the proposed exploratory talks between the SPD and the CDU which are set to start in the New Year.
Despite the prospect of once again being in government, Mr. Schulz and his party are currently languishing in the polls as some surveys see the Social Democrats under 20 per cent.
Mr. Schulz has also refused to give up his dream of a “United States of Europe” after he announced earlier this month that a European federal superstate could be achieved by 2025.