German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has shrugged off deeply negative polling figures and predicted that he will lead his Social Democratic Party (SPD) to a renewed term in office in elections set for September next year. Scholz told the Saturday edition of Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper that he was “firmly banking on the SPD and me gaining a mandate that will be strong enough for us to lead the next government.” The prediction came despite low polling figures for the party and for the chancellor himself, and poor results for the SPD in the June elections to the European Parliament and a catastrophi…