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Poll lead continues for Alliance parties

The centre-right Alliance extended its lead over the opposition in a poll released on Friday, while the nationalist Sweden Democrats saw their support climb to 6 percent.

Poll lead continues for Alliance parties

Together, the four parties of the Alliance increased their support by 2.1 percent to 50.5 percent, according to the latest Synovate poll, which were published on Friday in the Dagens Nyheter (DN) and Sydsvenskan newspapers.

At the same time, combined support for the Red-Greens dropped by 2.7 percent to 42.2 percent, with all three parties which make up the coalition – the Social Democrats, the Greens, and the Left Party; all losing support.

“They need to attract centre-right sympathisers in the last week if they’re going to turn things around,” Synovate opinion analyst Nicklas Källebring said to DN.

Meanwhile, the far-right Sweden Democrats saw their support rise by 1.3 percent to 6.0 percent, which is a statistically significant increase.

Furthermore, the poll indicates the Sweden Democrats have more supporters than two of the four parties that make up the Alliance coalition – the Centre Party and the Christian Democrats – both of which have support of just over 5 percent of the electorate.

The Red-Greens also lost support in a separate poll conducted by United Minds and presented in the Aftonbladet newspaper.

Together, the three Red-Green parties lost 1 percent, dropping their overall support to 44.7 percent.

However, with the Alliance parties garnering 47.6 percent support, an increase of 0.8 percent, the United Minds poll reveals a much smaller gap between the two blocs.

Support for the Sweden Democrats also increased slightly, to 5.4 percent, in the United Minds poll.

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Here’s what Germans think about Joe Biden becoming US President

Germans have previously said that outgoing US President Donald Trump is their greatest source of angst. So what exactly do they think about Joe Biden's win and his plans?

Here's what Germans think about Joe Biden becoming US President
US President-elect Joe Biden when he was US Vice President, and Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2013. Photo: DPA

There's an overwhelmingly positive view from the Bundesrepublik: nine out of ten Germans (89 percent) think it is “very good” or “good” that Biden won the recent US election.

In fact, only seven percent of those surveyed in the ARD Deutschlandtrend representative poll rate the election result as “not so good” or “bad”.

And a massive 80 percent of respondents to the representative survey believe that German-American relations will improve with Biden when he takes over as US President early next year.

It's a huge contrast to how Germans felt after the election of Donald Trump in 2016: at that time, 57 percent expected German-American relations to deteriorate.

A recent poll showed the worry is still strong. Trump took the top spot this year as the greatest source of German fear for the second time since 2018 in the survey conducted by insurance firm R+V. A total of 53 percent said they believe his policies make the world a more dangerous place.

READ ALSO: Germans 'more worried about Trump than coronavirus'

 

What do Germans think about Biden's proposals?

Biden's initial plan for the period after he comes office is also supported among Germans, according to the ARD survey.

These include the USA returning to the World Health Organisation and re-entering into the Paris Climate Agreement – something that 9 out of 10 Germans support.

Respondents also expect improvements for the domestic situation in the US: 90 percent support Biden's desire to develop an action plan as quickly as possible to control the coronavirus pandemic in the states.

READ ALSO: 'The world may respect us more': How Americans in Germany reacted to US elections

Unclear if Biden can make changes

A total of 85 percent of Germans believe that the USA will develop positively overall under Biden.

However, they also see possible limits to his actions: whether Biden can actually initiate major reforms also depends on what the majority balance in Congress will be like in the future. And whether the Democrats will be in the minority in the Senate or whether they will take control.

That will be decided in the January runoff election in the state of Georgia. There, two seats for the Senate are still at stake. If the Democrats are able to win them, they could be able to take control of the Senate.

But that is not yet the case – and currently 71 percent of Germans think that Biden will not achieve many of his goals because he is dependent on cooperation with the Republicans.

On another important issue – the reconciliation of the nation – Germans are cautiously optimistic: 56 percent trust Biden to overcome the divisions in US society.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier this week congratulated Biden on his election win. She said Germany would stand with the US to tackle global problems.

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