2024-02-21 17:28:08
A majority of Germans support Olaf Scholz’s plan to invest significantly more in defense. But the Union also expresses criticism. There are also new ideas about compulsory military service.
The traffic light coalition can rely on a solid majority of the population to expand Germany’s defense capability. According to a study by management consultancy PwC, 68 percent of Germans are generally in favor of making Germany more defensible. The need is great: when asked specifically about investments for the “turnaround” announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in March 2022, 57 percent support Scholz’s plan to invest two percent or more of the gross domestic product in defense. 31 percent see this critically. However, the majority (63 percent) believe that the turning point has not yet reached the Bundeswehr.
For the study, PwC is based on a representative survey of 500 men and women between the ages of 18 and 65 on January 9th and 10th. The results are based on a study from 2022 and are available to the dpa in Berlin.
Wolfgang Zink from the study’s team of authors explains: “In the survey from summer 2022, we were able to determine how much the population was under the shock of the Russian attack on Ukraine and how clearly there was a change of heart on defense issues. The results from 2024 underline “that people are still very concerned and want more efforts to strengthen security.”
Less than half perceive the Bundeswehr positively
58 percent consider stationing more soldiers on NATO’s eastern flank to be necessary, especially with regard to stationing Bundeswehr soldiers in Lithuania. However, only 45.5 percent of those surveyed had positive comments about the Bundeswehr itself. In 2022, 54 percent still perceived the Bundeswehr positively.
Germans are rather skeptical about whether Ukraine will be able to assert itself against Russia with the help of the West: 39 percent see opportunities. 48 percent are rather skeptical about Ukraine’s long-term resilience.
Those surveyed are very skeptical about whether NATO and the West would continue to deter Russia as before if Donald Trump becomes US President again. Only 7 percent consider the USA to be reliable in this regard, while 15.4 percent have a fairly high level of trust. A clear majority of 59.1 percent expect that the USA would reduce its aid to Ukraine under a President Trump. In this context, SPD politician Katarina Barley recently called for a European atomic bomb to be discussed, as you can read here.
Union faction calls for strategy for defense industry
Not only a large part of the population is in favor of strengthening Germany’s defense. There are also similar voices in the opposition Union. For example, Union faction deputy Johann Wadephul (CDU) supports the arms company Rheinmetall’s investments in ammunition production. Chancellor Scholz and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) ceremoniously began the construction of the company’s new factory on Monday with a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony. The factory in Unterlüß, Lower Saxony, is expected to produce 200,000 rounds of artillery ammunition annually. A t-online reporter was on site when construction began; you can read his report here.
Wadephul praised Scholz and Pistorius for personally attending the start of construction. However, he calls on the federal government to present a strategy to strengthen the defense industry. “Two years after the turning point was announced, it is high time that the industrial base was finally broadened,” Wadephul told the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post” on Tuesday. The Bundeswehr can only become the backbone of NATO’s conventional defense in Europe if there is an industrial base that supplies modern equipment in increasing quantities, he emphasized.
Kiesewetter: “We need more than 300 billion euros instead of 100 billion”
How Germany’s defense capability could be increased is controversial. The CDU defense politician Roderich Kiesewetter is open to significantly increasing the 100 billion euro special pot for the Bundeswehr. “I would not rule out an increase in the special fund for the Bundeswehr,” he told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “It’s completely clear that we need 300 billion instead of 100 billion so that the Bundeswehr becomes capable of war.”