More than half of the people in Germany see it as the Federal Government’s most important foreign policy task: Europe’s cohesion to strengthen. In a representative survey by the Forsa Institute for the magazine International politics 54 percent of those surveyed stated this goal as a priority. That was three percentage points less than in a similar survey in February, but significantly more than for all other foreign policy tasks.
37 percent (February: 38 percent) of those surveyed considered increasing Germany’s defense capability to be the most important goal. In third place with 28 percent (plus eight percentage points) is the task of: Influence of authoritarian states to limit.
Commitment to climate protection is becoming less important
However, it has lost some of its importance in people’s perception Commitment to more climate protectionwhich only 23 percent considered to be the most important task (minus three percentage points). Strengthening relations with countries in the so-called Global South was mentioned by 20 percent (plus one percentage point) of those surveyed.
The greatest loss of significance occurs with one Expanding support to Ukraine off: At seven percent, this goal has the lowest priority. In February, 17 percent mentioned this point, although Germany has already increased its aid to Ukraine since then.
The survey was conducted among 1,005 representatively selected respondents on December 3rd and 4th. The respondents were asked to assess which foreign policy issues the federal government should pay particular attention to in the coming year. They could choose up to two of the six topic areas provided, but could not name any foreign policy goals outside of the suggested topics. Forsa specifies the error tolerance as three percentage points.
Climate protection is even more important to the Left than to the Greens
Depending on age, party affiliation and place of residence, the answers were sometimes very different. For example, among 14 to 29 year olds, only ten percent prioritized Germany’s defense capability, almost four times less than the overall average. Among Union voters, 62 percent named this as their most important goal; It was significantly less important to SPD voters at 26 percent.
Green and left-wing voters However, according to the survey, they particularly prioritize this Climate protection with 57 and 63 percent respectively. According to Forsa, climate protection also plays a significantly greater role for people under 30 than for older people. Strengthening defense capabilities and limiting the power of authoritarian states are significantly more important to West Germans than to East Germans.
