armed forces
Study: Majority wants to expand defense capabilities
57 percent of those surveyed support the intention to invest two percent or more of the gross domestic product in Germany’s defense. photo
© Philipp Schulze/dpa
Before the Munich Security Conference, the management consultancy PwC presents a mood picture on defense policy. One thing is clear: most citizens want a stronger Bundeswehr.
The traffic light coalition can rely on a solid majority of the population when making decisions to expand Germany’s defense capability. According to a study by the management consultancy PwC, 68 percent of Germans support this project, but 63 percent also think that the “turning point” announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in March 2022 has not yet arrived Bundeswehr had arrived. The majority consider the necessary investments to be necessary: 57 percent support the intention to invest two percent or more of the gross domestic product in defense. 31 percent see this critically.
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, which follow on from an investigation from 2022, were available to the dpa in Berlin.
“In the summer 2022 survey, we were able to determine how much the population was shocked by 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 worried and want more efforts to strengthen security,” explained Wolfgang Zink, who is part of the study’s author team at PwC in Germany.
Less than half perceive the Bundeswehr positively
A total of 58 percent consider the expansion of the troop presence on NATO’s eastern flank, especially with the planned German combat brigade in Lithuania, to be rather necessary. When asked about their attitude towards the Bundeswehr, only 45.5 percent of those surveyed expressed themselves positively. In 2022, 54 percent still perceived the Bundeswehr positively.
When it comes to the question of whether Ukraine will be able to successfully assert itself against Russia with the support of the West, Germans are skeptical: 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 their deterrence policy towards Russia as before if Donald Trump were re-elected as US President. 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 commitment to Ukraine under a Trump presidency.
Security situation also worsened in Germany?
In addition, according to the survey, 69.5 percent of Germans believe that the security situation in Germany has worsened because of the war in the Middle East, for example due to riots during demonstrations, anti-Semitism or Islamist attacks. Around every second German (52.1 percent) sees themselves as not being adequately protected by the security authorities. 38.3 percent tend to perceive adequate protection.
A large majority of 76.2 percent also believe that Germany is already (tend to be) overwhelmed with immigration at its current levels. And 81 percent are in favor of curbing illegal migration more; 11.5 percent spoke out against it. Accordingly, 76.5 percent are in favor of stricter controls at the EU borders in order to detain illegal entrants and potential terrorists. 14.2 percent of those surveyed are somewhat or clearly against more controls.