by WorldTribune Staff, November 20, 2017
While still far short of the Eisenhower line (65 percent average approval for two terms), U.S. President Donald Trump’s current approval rating tops those of Europe’s Big 3 – German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UK Prime Minister Theresa May, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
According to the most recent Zogby Analytics survey, Trump’s approval ratings range from 38 percent to the mid 40s. Rasmussen set it at 42 percent last week.
Zogby found that 40 percent of Germans approve of Merkel’s performance while 49 percent disapprove.
May came in at a woeful 28 percent approval and 61 percent disapproval.
Macron also garnered just 28 percent approval, while 52 percent disapprove of his performance.
Meanwhile, talks to form Germany’s next government collapsed on Nov. 19 as the four parties failed to bridge a wide gap over immigration policy, AFP reported.
A mass influx from 2015 that brought some 1.2 million asylum seekers to Germany sparked a backlash that has seen the far-right AfD party enter parliament.
Merkel’s CDU and its more conservative CSU allies from Bavaria, where tens of thousands of refugees crossed over the border from Austria, are pushing to limit Germany’s annual intake to a benchmark figure of 200,000, the AFP report said.
The Greens, who have long promoted migrant rights and a multicultural society, finally appear ready to accept the figure but they will not budge on their demand for a resumption of family reunions for those who have been granted temporary refuge in Germany, something opposed by both the CSU and FDP.
Amid alarm last year over the record influx of refugees, Berlin suspended reunifications until March 2018 for war refugees like Syrians, granting them only a year’s temporary protection which is renewable depending on the situation in their home countries.
Macron “was hailed as a centrist who could bridge the major parties, and be able to bring about reform at home and across Europe,” columnist Paul Bedard wrote for the Washington Examiner. “The honeymoon period is now over and his favorable/unfavorable ratings reflect this change of heart among French citizens.”
May’s numbers “are low among all demographics, but are much lower among younger adults aged 18-29 (71 unfavorable) compared with adults 50+ (53 percent unfavorable),” Bedard wrote.
Merkel, who won re-election to a fourth term in September, “is looking to broker a governing coalition on the home front and take on the challenges associated with Brexit and European Union reform,” Bedard wrote. “As Europe’s largest economy, Germany has been at odds lately with England over how much England will pay to ‘divorce’ from the EU. Outside and inside of Germany, Merkel’s favorability rating has also been taking a hit.”
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Trump approval ratings top those of Germany’s Merkel, UK’s May, France’s Macron added by World Tribune on
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