Opinion poll
Majority supports the Chancellor’s no to Taurus missiles
A Bundeswehr Tornado IDS ASSTA 3.0 fighter jet, equipped with the Taurus guided missile. photo
© Andrea Bienert/Bundeswehr/dpa
For months, Chancellor Scholz had been weighing up whether he wanted to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine. Then he decided against it. The majority of German citizens support this decision.
A majority of Germans support the Chancellor’s decision Olaf Scholz (SPD) not to deliver Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. In a survey by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the German Press Agency, 55 percent support the Chancellor’s no, only 26 percent believe the decision is wrong.
At the beginning of October, after months of review, Scholz decided not to deliver any of the precision weapons with a range of 500 kilometers to Ukraine for the time being. He justified this by saying that Germany could be drawn into the war. The underlying fear is that Russian territory could also be hit by the Taurus missiles. Ukraine had already asked for the weapons in May so that it could attack Russian positions far behind the front line.
Criticism from the Union, the Greens and the FDP
The Union, but also individual politicians from the Greens and FDP coalition parties, criticized the decision. However, it is overwhelmingly approved by voters from all parties represented in the Bundestag. Support is particularly strong among AfD voters (79 percent). Behind them are the supporters of the SPD (59 percent), FDP (57 percent), Union (53 percent) and the Left (49 percent). Of Green voters, 40 percent think the decision is right and 34 percent think it is wrong.
Germany is considered Ukraine’s second most important arms supplier after the USA and has already provided, among other things, battle tanks, heavy artillery and anti-aircraft systems for the fight against the Russian attackers. This met with a mixed response among the population. For 39 percent of those surveyed by YouGov, military support goes too far. 29 percent believe that exactly the right amount of weapons are being delivered. 18 percent are of the opinion that the federal government should provide even more weapons.