That was to be expected: support for the German government’s Ukraine and sanctions policy is dwindling rapidly among the German population – even though Russia has not yet taken any active countermeasures and most of the consequences of the sanctions are still hypothetical.
Nevertheless, more than half of Germans now have doubts about the policies of the federal government. This was reported by German daily Welt with reference to a survey by the opinion research institute Infratest dimap.
Accordingly, only 39 percent of Germans currently support the course of the coalition in the Ukraine war. In contrast, an impressive 56 percent of Germans have concerns.
At the same time, more and more Germans are worried about the consequences of supporting Ukraine. Although seven out of ten respondents describe their own economic situation as “good” or “very good”, almost half of those surveyed view their future prospects “with skepticism and concern”. Above all, they fear energy bottlenecks and a loss of purchasing power. The mood is clear: almost half of those questioned (48 percent) fear that their personal economic situation will be worse in a year’s time than it is today.
The pollsters also register a similar change of mood in other countries. The German Institute for the World Economy (IfW) noted on July 6 that the momentum of support for Ukraine was losing momentum around the world. Since February 24, the IfW has been documenting the military, financial and humanitarian aid that has been promised to Ukraine.
According to a study published on the organization’s website: “The momentum of further pledges of support to Ukraine is slowing down. […] What is also striking is the large gap between the support that has been promised and that which has actually been provided. In terms of both military and financial commitments, performance is below what Ukraine has identified as its needs and what the country has been promised.”
According to experts, Germany’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict and its adherence to the West’s anti-Russia course are hitting the Germans the hardest, more so than other Europeans. If the sanctions are maintained, Germany is threatened with a massive energy crisis. Apparently, not only the affected citizens are aware of this, but also more and more politicians.
Last but not least, Russian observers are registering the change in mood in Germany. This is how the Russian political scientist Andrei Manoilo explained it on the Russian news platform RT: “Dissatisfaction is indeed growing because Germans by and large don’t care about Ukraine or the future world order when their own interests suffer. They only care about themselves and see the prices go up, straining their budgets.”
Alexander Kamkin, a researcher at the IMEMO Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, shared this view. The constant rise in prices, the decline in social stability and the closure of companies in many sectors in the midst of the Ukraine conflict do not help to strengthen the confidence of German citizens in the path taken by the government.
Kamkin elaborated: “In particular, there is already talk of the need to separate the economic and political components. Conventionally speaking, please support Ukraine, but why wage a sanctions war to the detriment of our own interests? This has become the main reason for dissatisfaction.”
A historic date – and an acute crisis warning signal
For the first time in about two decades, the euro is worth exactly one dollar. This is the preliminary final result of a downward rally that has lasted for years: In 2008 the euro was still worth 1,60 US dollars, in 2014 1,34 dollars and most recently 1,20 dollars for several years.
That was until noon on Tuesday, when the common EU currency reached parity with the US currency for the first time since 2002. The last time a euro was worth exactly one dollar was in October 2002 – shortly after the euro was introduced as cash.
On the one hand, the threat of energy shortages and the associated fears of recession and on the other hand, the monetary policy of the European Central Bank (ECB), have contributed to decline.
However, the main reason for the euro’s weakness is the weakening German economy. Since European currencies were merged into the euro, it has been an open secret that the strength of the EU currency has been primarily a consequence of the strong German economy.
For decades, it made it possible to “drag along” even weak partners like Italy or Greece. But that’s over now: the engine of European economic power is itself under extreme pressure. And not only because of the current crisis, but also because of the suicidal green energy policy pursued by German governments for years. Long before the current crisis, the price of electricity in Germany was already the highest in the world as a result of various strangulation instruments such as CO2 pricing.
Voters have had enough, however.