Percentage of Germans who think that the following countries are a partner that can be trusted(in blue). Latest ARD poll

27 comments

  2. not surprising from my experience. had coworkers who were AfD voters who were like”NATO provoked Russia, but Russia is still a dictatorship that can’t be trusted

    Die Linke voters also usually are “both USA and Russia are bad,Ukraine is for Russia what Iraq is for America etc.”

    Russia has fucked up its reputation here for decades

  10. To _oversimplify_ the matter in terms of relations towards the USA:

    While [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany–United_States_relations) claims that today “Today, Germany and the United States are close and strong allies”, when 40% of a population either doesn’t trust someone or are undecided, it may be advisable to observe the matter a bit more carefully.

    In terms of the public relations, the USA still benefits from the historical friendship due it it’s past investments in west Germany but especially in recent years, the perspective shifted, sometimes dramatically – and not just in the fringes of the political landscape.

    To put it a bit more diplomatically: to Germany, not dissimilar to the neighbouring French attitude towards cross the Atlantic relations, the USA is often a _difficult_ but also very important ally ( and these feelings are seemingly mutual, although obviously theoretically to a lesser degree in the latter regard, since Germany practically acts as part of the EU ).

    Due to the latters often massive internal shifts in terms of the direction of power ( with Bush – Obama – Trump – Biden this is already a lot of change in less than a quarter century ) US-governments are seen as fairly unreliable strategically ( no wonder, given many openly stated Republican relevant foreign policy positions ) but even more damaging is the fact that the EU. ( & therefore also Germany ) and the USAs are often, despite this not being openly acknowledged by either side all that much, acting in open opposition to each other regardless of which party is represented in the White House due to hard to align interests.

    When it was revealed that even the democratic Obama administration had spied on the former German chancellor, this was not an isolated occurrence to many observers – nor all that unexpected.
    To make myself clear: on the scale of things that cause the increasing rift between the two nations and the EU and the USA in general, this is just one of many examples, not even mentioning economic rivalries or differences in terms of foreign politics which are broadening the many cracks between the “close allies”.

    Basically: while a majority of the German public is generally currently obviously looking favourably towards the USA, even Russias war against Ukraine is not enough to reverse the core issues that lead to the increasing divide between significant parts of Europe and Washington and it will not be easy to ensure that this relationship stands against the test of time despite these odds.

    TLDR: the diplomatic relationships between Germany and the USA are best described as troubled, while recent developments ( war in Ukraine + democratic president ) increased the latters is positive image substantially, such changes are likely temporary IF underlying issues between the two ( and by extension, large parts of the EU & the USA ) remain unaddressed.

  17. Countries have interests and are never your friends unless they have similar interests..

    Example see North stream 2

  19. Ukranian gov is deeply corrupt, but as recently _their citizens_ are victims of war, they get high trust…
    US probably blew up the noord gas tubes, maybe to check-mate germans into not having any second thoughts about having to go with the rus gas.

    amazing how emotions work

  25. It’s a shame that they ask about so few countries.

    I would love to see a result for Poland, France, Italy and GB.

  26. USA can be trusted only as long as Trump, DeSantis, McConnell or any of their small-minded colleagues in the formerly Grand Old Party (GOP) do not capture the US Presidency. Know-nothing republicans (with a small r) are a danger to Germany, to Europe, to the planet as a whole.

  27. To the people saying “Ukraine is very corrupt” let me ask “what happened in recent history to make it that way?” That should shut you up.

    Hint: being occupied by the Soviet Union for 50 years, followed by 20 years of Russia meddling with its politics

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