BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans see U.S. President Donald Trump as a bigger challenge for German foreign policy than authoritarian leaders in North Korea, Russia or Turkey, according to a survey by the Koerber Foundation.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Utah State Capitol, where he announced big cuts to Utah's sprawling wilderness national monuments, in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Topping the list of foreign policy concerns were refugees, with 26 percent of respondents worried about Germany’s ability to cope with inflows of asylum seekers.
Relations with Trump and the United States ranked second, with 19 percent describing them as a major challenge, followed by Turkey at 17 percent, North Korea at 10 percent and Russia at 8 percent.
Since entering the White House in January, Trump has unsettled Germans by pulling out of the Paris climate accord, refusing to certify an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme and criticizing Germany’s trade surplus and its contributions to the NATO military alliance.
Trump’s actions prompted the usually cautious German Chancellor Angela Merkel to say earlier this year that Berlin may not be able to rely on the United States in the future. She also urged Europe to take its fate into its own hands.
In the poll of 1,005 Germans of voting age, carried out in October, 56 percent of Germans described the relationship with the United States as bad or very bad.
Despite Merkel’s pledge, the survey showed deep scepticism in the population about Germany taking a more active role in international crises, with 52 percent of respondents saying the country should continue its post-war policy of restraint.
That may reflect the fact that neither Merkel nor her main challengers in the recent election campaign talked much about how Germany should respond to the challenges posed by Trump’s disruptive presidency and Britain’s looming departure from the European Union.
Last week, Norbert Roettgen, a member of Merkel’s conservative party and head of the foreign affairs committee in the Bundestag, decried a “deplorable” lack of leadership in educating Germans about the need to invest more in their own defense and security.
MosTheBoss on December 5th, 2017 at 14:21 UTC »
Alternative read of it is "Germans think refugees are a bigger problem than Trump"
aboynamedbluetoo on December 5th, 2017 at 13:22 UTC »
Alternative Headline: Over a Quarter of Germans Think Refugees are the Biggest Foreign Policy Challenge Facing Their Country.
From the article, "Topping the list of foreign policy concerns were refugees, with 26 percent of respondents worried about Germany’s ability to cope with inflows of asylum seekers.
Relations with Trump and the United States ranked second, with 19 percent describing them as a major challenge, followed by Turkey at 17 percent, North Korea at 10 percent and Russia at 8 percent."
chakadal on December 5th, 2017 at 11:46 UTC »
My (German) take on why these results show up, tldr found at the end:
Kim obviously is fucked up beyond belief but completely irrelevant in economic terms and not posing a military threat to us either. The US cares about him due to NK's growing capacity to commit a military strike against them and their rivalry with China over influence in Korea.
Erdogan is probably hated a lot more here and represents an immediate regional problem to Europe and especially us due to our large Turkish descended community. But Turkey is struggling economically and we have the economic and political tools to render most of its influence useless here. He could hurt us but we'd be fine.
Putin surprises me to be honest. It should be noted that we do still have a part of the population that grew up under soviet control and partly romanticizes Russia and its global role (see a large part of the Left party). Putin is probably the smartest and one of the more ruthless international players out there. But his and by extension Russia's relationship with Germany is very calculated and rational. We don't see him committing any short sighted faux-pas that could hurt both of our countries. As long as we buy their gas and steel Russia would be foolish to tank relationships with us - especially in their current economic state. Predictability and the feeling of a sliver of economic control make him appear less of an immediate challenge. He's been around for a while and we're fine.
Trump has repeatedly voiced his dislike of the European Union, Germany's economic success and our political leaders. And he's attempted to undermine them with his attempts to ignore common EU stances on trade deals or his ultimately inconsequential talks of extra customs on our automakers for example. That doesn't make him worse than the others. The issue is that he's unpredicatble, operating in opposition to much of the established US-German relationship and that we have no influential tool to keep him at bay should he decide to turn against us. Also the media loves to hate him making his presence a constant 24/7. That makes him a bigger challenge in the perception of many.
tldr: Kim is largely irrelevant to our part of the globe, Turkey is relatively weak, Russia acts very calculated, rational and is in a mutually benefitial economic relationship with us, Trump is powerful, unpredictable and we have zero ways to contain his influence.