A new opinion poll has revealed that two-thirds of German citizens now fear being drawn into a direct military conflict with the Russian Federation, with only 45% saying that they want Germany to come to the aid of another NATO member state if it were attacked.
The polling data, which also indicates the German population fears war and inflation more than all other issues facing the country, emerges from the results of the “Security Report 2023,” carried out by the Allensbach Institute on behalf of the Center for Strategy and Higher Leadership, the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.
The security report’s results, among several other things, revealed that 85% of Germans worry about the Russo-Ukrainian war, while 86% have deep concerns over the country’s record- high inflation.
The fear that the Federal Republic could be pulled into a war with Russia is widespread, at 63%, up from the 37% recorded in last year’s security report. Additionally, nearly half of the survey respondents (47%) reported feeling personally threatened by Germany’s participation in the Russo-Ukrainian war via its continued weapons deliveries—which now include the state-of-the-art Leopard 2 tanks—to Ukraine.
Against the backdrop of the current geopolitical situation, the survey asked expressly how Germany’s NATO alliance obligation ought to be handled in the event of an outbreak of war affecting another NATO country.
To this question, a minority of 45% of Germans favor getting involved militarily, in accordance with Article 5 of the NATO alliance treaty, in the event of an attack on an ally. In the eastern German states, this figure drops to a mere 30%. As for the entire country, 35% of those surveyed said it is better to “keep out of it” if a fellow NATO ally is attacked. One in five remained undecided on this issue.
Reacting to Germany’s apparent lack of commitment to its NATO allies, Klaus Schweinsberg from the Center for Strategy and Higher Leader, the co-editor of the security report, said: “The fact that there is no clear commitment among the Germans to the alliance’s obligations in NATO is frightening.”
“The NATO partners, especially in the Eeast, will look at this lack of solidarity among the German population with concern and incomprehension and will demand a clear commitment from German politicians,” Schweinsberg added.
Results from the “Security Report 2023,” like the majority of surveys carried out in Germany, revealed stark differences in opinion between the western German and eastern German states. For instance, while 50% of West Germany say the U.S. is a reliable ally, only 26% of those in former East German states feel the same way.
Lastly, 57% of those surveyed expressed worry about a renewed influx of asylum seekers and the increasing gap between rich and poor. More than half of the population fears that medical care will not be available to them if they fall ill.
