Before the elections: Not much support for the EU among Germans

2024-06-02 08:55:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

It is the biggest democratic election in the world, if we leave India aside. About 450 million citizens in the EU are called to vote on June 9 for the new parliament with 720 deputies. For weeks, activists have been on the streets to promote their parties' policies, but many themselves are not interested. Four out of 10 voters would not go to vote in June for the European Parliament. This comes from a poll for the German trend of the German public television, ARD.

According to the survey data, the CDU/CSU opposition in Germany has the chance to be the main force in the European elections. With about 29%, the result, according to the survey, would not differ much from the elections before 5 years, but still the opposition leads. While the Social Democrats reach only 15% in the polls, the Greens 14% and the liberal party, FDP only 4%. The coalition parties achieve a much weaker result than in the European elections in 2019. The new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance party immediately reaches 6% in the poll. Leftists reach only 3%.

Climate and environmental protection lose importance

Regarding the question, which is the most important topic for the decision to vote for a certain party, the respondents this time mention peace, social topics and immigration. The ranking of the most worrying issues for German citizens has thus changed from five years ago. Before a changed state of security threats, ensuring peace takes on a special importance for voters, reaching 26%. Social security has also gained importance, every fourth voter would orientate their vote to social security. Despite this, the topic of climate and environment has lost importance, compared to 2019, when it was the main topic among respondents. 14% give importance to this topic in the vote.

Enthusiasm for the EU is lost

In 2019, among Germans, the EU was evaluated more positively than currently. Only four out of ten German citizens are now of the opinion that being part of the EU brings advantages for Germany. For 19%, being a member country brings more disadvantages. If five years ago 55% of the surveyed citizens were in favor of deepening intra-European integration and giving more powers to the EU, today it is only 48%. Many see the future of the EU with pessimism.

Opinion researchers wanted to know how voters evaluate the president of the European Commission, the German, Ursula von der Leyen, candidate of the European People's Party for a new mandate. The poll results show that support for von der Leyen is not very high. Four out of 10 respondents support von der Leyen's ambitions as president of the EC, among them most from the ranks of the CDU/CSU, but also the Green Social Democrats. But there are also many citizens with the right to vote who reject her new mandate.

The video with racist tones in Sylt is not an isolated case

The developer of the polls, Infratest-dimap, also took a look at the general atmosphere in Germany: 1479 citizens were asked about this in a representative way. Currently causing outrage in Germany is a short video during a party on the German island of Sylt, where some young people sing along to Gigi D'Agostions' hit, "Germans' Germany", "Foreigners Outside". Meanwhile, it has become clear that this video was not the only one. In other cases too, racist tones have been heard under this melody.

The German trend shows that this phenomenon worries the Germans. Only the supporters of AfD, 75% of respondents in the UK express concern about the racist tones in the video.

AfD finds support on the topic of asylum and refugees

If elections were held in Germany next Sunday, the AfD would receive 18% of the vote, 4% less than at the beginning of the year. Two-thirds of citizens see the AfD as a threat to democracy in Germany. A growing number of citizens accuse this party of keeping many right-wing extremists in its ranks. At the same time, 44% of German respondents positively assess that the AfD, when it seeks to limit the arrival of foreigners and refugees in Germany-

The coalition government in Berlin continues to be negatively evaluated. 74% of the respondents are not satisfied with the work of the social democrats, the Greens and the liberals, the FDP. On the other hand, only every fifth respondent believes that the CDU/CSU opposition would better solve the country's current problems. /DW