Nearly half of German voters support Berlin deploying troops as part of a broader peacekeeping force in Ukraine after a potential Trump-negotiated settlement between Kyiv and Moscow.
While Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is predicted to lose power after this week’s federal elections in Germany, scoffed at committing Bundeswehr soldiers to protect Ukraine at French President Emmanuel Macron’s emergency summit in Paris on Monday, reportedly even claiming to have been “annoyed” by the very question, he appears to be out of step with a plurality of his own countrymen.
According to a survey from Forsa, 49 per cent of German voters support deploying troops to Ukraine as a post-ceasefire peacekeeping force, compared to 44 per cent opposed and seven per cent unsure, broadcaster NTV reports.
There are deep partisan divides on the issue, however, with populist supporters of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) and of the left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) — which combined account for around a quarter of the polity — opposing troop deployments by 83 per cent and 89 per cent, respectively.
In contrast, 54 per cent of supporters of Chancellor Scholz’s leftist Social Democrats back a troop deployment, while 59 per cent of the neo-liberal CDU/CSU alliance and 77 per cent of Greens also support the idea.
Berlin’s hesitancy at deploying troops in Europe — perhaps understandable given the country’s history — comes amid questions around the ability of European countries to project outward military given their long track record of devoting disproportionate spending on welfare programmes while relying on the United States to underwrite their security.
The emergency summit in Paris, which failed to produce a unified consensus on troop deployments, was hastily organised as it was made clear by the Trump White House at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend that Europe would not have a seat at negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv but is also now expected by Washington to finally pony up for its defence and to protect its own backyard against Russia as the U.S. shifts its focus to the Pacific and the growing threat of Communist China.
Commenting on the panic that emerged from the conference in European capitals, German Colonel Markus Reisner said: “At the Munich Security Conference, I compared this to the emperor, who states that he is not wearing any clothes: Europe was held up to the mirror and now realizes that it is left without pants. Yes, even that it doesn’t have any pants anymore.
“If the Americans really turn away from us, then we have nothing to put on the table to be taken seriously by Russia.”
Although the emergency meeting in Paris saw both the Poles and the Germans reject making any commitments on deploying troops to Ukraine, Sweden and the United Kingdom expressed willingness to join onto the plan.
Yet big questions remain, with the former leader of the British Army, Lord Dannatt, expressing doubts that the UK has enough troops to fulfil Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s desire for large-scale deployment in Ukraine. Lord Dannat also noted that the Labour government’s plan to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent would fall well short of the investments needed to fund such a mission.
Additionally, Starmer said after the Paris summit that any pan-European peacekeeping force sent to Ukraine would need to have a “backstop” of an American commitment to come to their aid if they came under fire from Russia. So far, the Trump administration has said that no U.S. troops would be sent and that the mission should not be considered a NATO operation, meaning that America would not be bound by the Article 5 clause of the alliance to step in should an attack occur.
Finally, Starmer’s pronouncement will likely need to be approved by the parliament in London, a process that may highlight the country’s budgetary woes and the government’s insistence on ploughing more money into welfare programmes rather than meaningful investments into the military.
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