A majority of Germans – 71 percent – believe their country should become energy independent from Russia, and only 24 percent have the opposite view. This is one of the results of a recent sociological survey by Deutschlandtrend, published on Thursday, August 4th.

The majority of supporters of the German Green Party defend the energy independence of the Russian Federation – 95 percent. Among SPD voters, this proportion is 81 percent, in the field of CDU/CSU supporters – 75 percent, among FDP supporters – 73 percent. Only those who vote for the populist right-wing Alternative for Germany party have a different balance: only 32% of them consider energy independence from Russia the right goal, while 64% believe the opposite.

In western Germany, the energy independence of the Russian Federation is supported by a noticeably higher percentage of the population than in the east of the country – 76% against 54. But in the country as a whole, supporters of this measure are in a confident majority, they emphasize. the sociologists.

“Enough” weapons for Ukraine, “few” sanctions against the Russian Federation

According to the results of the same survey, 39% of Germans consider the current volume of arms supplies from the RFA to Ukraine to be justified. In June, this opinion was met by 3 percentage points more often. At the same time, 32% of respondents (+9 percentage points compared to June) believe that arms supplies to Kyiv have gone too far, and only 23% (-6 percentage points) said they could be increased.

As for the sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation, 37% of Germans still consider them insufficient, although this share is decreasing – in June it was 41%. 34 percent think there are now as many sanctions as necessary (supporters of this view have dropped by 3 percentage points), and 21 percent of German residents are certain that the sanctions war has gone too far (+6 percentage points). .

So, after five months of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Germans have cooled down a bit on the idea of ​​supporting the latter. However, most of them still remain committed to it, sociologists say.

The sociological study Deutschlandtrend was carried out by the Infratest dimap institute, commissioned by the public legal TV channel ARD, from 1 to 3 August. A total of 1,313 people were interviewed, 858 by phone and 455 online.