The warnings of a Third World War from top politicians in East and West are leaving their mark: fear of this has increased significantly among Germans. However, there are differences between women and men, between different groups of voters, and education and income also play a role.
The war in Ukraine affects the mood in Germany. Six out of ten representative respondents (59 percent) are afraid of a Third World War. This was determined by the opinion research institute Insa on behalf of the debate portal “The European”. Fear predominates in all voter groups and income brackets, but there are differences: women (69 percent) and respondents with household incomes of less than 2,000 euros (63 percent) say much more frequently that they Men (47 percent) and respondents with a household income of 4,000 euros and more (51 percent) were afraid of a third world war.
A majority of voters from all party political leanings are afraid of a Third World War. Voters of the party Die Linke with 62 percent and the CDU/CSU, SPD and AfD with 60 percent each say this a little more often than the voters of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (51 percent) and FDP (54 percent).
Warnings from the Kremlin apparently fall on fertile ground in Germany. The Russian government had recently issued a clear warning to the West and Ukraine. If the country actually joins NATO, the war with Russia is guaranteed to escalate into a world war, a member of Russia’s Security Council told Reuters. “Kyiv is aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to World War III,” said Alexander Venediktov, deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council.
At the end of September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskkyj called for his country to be admitted to NATO – primarily in response to the Russian annexation of occupied territories in the Ukraine war. Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, described NATO expansion to Russia’s borders as a threat and thus justified his country’s campaign against Ukraine.
US President Biden also sees the danger of a nuclear confrontation with catastrophic consequences after threats from the Kremlin as greater than it has been in 60 years. Biden said the world had not faced the prospect of “Armageddon” since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Western politicians are also taking the threats seriously. “I’m doing everything to prevent an escalation that leads to a third world war. There must be no nuclear war,” said Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
