Majority of Germans say gov. should exercise restraint on intl. issues

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
28 Nov 2023 00:47

A survey conducted by Kantar Public Research Group finds that 71% of Germans believe their country should not take a military leadership role in Europe.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends a joint statement with Vice Chancellor and Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck and Finance Minister Christian Lindner at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, November 15, 2023. (AP)

More than half of Germans believe that their country must exercise greater restraint when reacting to international crises, a poll conducted by the Kantar Public Research Group for the Koerber Foundation revealed on Monday.

The survey showed that 54% of Germans expressed this view, marking a two percentage point increase compared to answers received to the same question last year.

On the other hand, respondents supporting the country's stronger engagement on international issues fell from 41% to 38%, according to the study.

Moreover, only 28% of Germans believe that their country should take on a military leadership role in Europe while 71% disagree with the notion.

However, 66% of respondents said that Germany should continue to provide military assistance to Ukraine, while 34% said that they do not support military aid to Kiev.

Interestingly, 14% of respondents said that the country should develop relations with Russia instead of the United States. The overwhelming majority, 75%, said the opposite.

A much smaller group of Germans believes that Russia poses a serious threat to Germany, as only 36% of respondents agreed with this statement. Most Germans, 40%, said that Russia is not much of a threat to their nation, while 21% see no threat at all.

It is worth noting that the poll was conducted in September before the breakout of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.

German gov faces popular disfavor

Earlier on Friday, a poll revealed that nearly half of Germans support the dissolution of the current government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with approximately one-third attributing the halted budget to his actions.

The survey was conducted by the Civey Sociological Institute for the German news magazine Focus and included 5,000 respondents.

According to survey results, 49% of participants expressed a desire for the dissolution of the "traffic light" coalition government, consisting of Chancellor Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP), and the Greens. Respondents indicated a preference for the SPD to collaborate with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) to establish a new government.

An additional 48% of respondents attributed the coalition's challenges to a significant financial gap in the German budget, arising from a court decision deeming the redistribution of unclaimed loan funds from past years as unlawful. Consequently, the survey indicated that 64% of the population has lost trust in the cabinet.

In response to inquiries about the accountable party for the budget crisis, participants were nearly evenly split, with 28% holding Chancellor Scholz responsible, 27% attributing blame to Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens, and 25% placing fault on Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the FDP.