Debates about vaccination, how to deal with those seeking protection or the climate crisis: In Germany there are a number of topics that are controversially discussed.
According to the findings of a new study by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), however, the common discussion is increasingly being replaced by exclusion.
The rejection of people with completely different political opinions than their own is increasing accordingly in Germany.
The analysis is based primarily on two representative surveys in 2019 and 2020. While in the first years after the founding of the Greens in 1980 the contrast between voters from the CDU and CSU and supporters of the new eco-party was particularly high, it was therefore political Most recently, motivated reservations can be found between supporters of the AfD and supporters of the Greens.
From a societal perspective, the difference in terms of acceptance for these two groups is great.
While in a survey in August and September last year, 62 percent of Germans stated that they did not want to have anything to do with AfD voters, only 13 percent said this about the voters of the Greens.
According to the information, 9 percent of those surveyed did not want any contact with CDU voters.
One in five said they did not want to have anything to do with climate activists personally.
Even more people (22 percent) said that about SUV drivers.
Location in the middle
The study cites immigration as well as taxes, social benefits and climate protection as examples of policy areas in which opinions have recently diverged further than before.
For example, on the issue of climate protection in competition with economic growth, the supporters of different parties have diverged.
In 2013, the gap between the two most distant parties - the Union and the Greens at the time - was 2.2 points.
At the end of 2019 / beginning of 2020, the maximum difference between the parties was 3.8 points on the scale, now between the AfD and the Greens.
A clear majority of those entitled to vote place themselves politically in the middle.
According to the study by the CDU-affiliated foundation, only around six percent of Germans see themselves on the right edge.
13 percent of those eligible to vote belong to the far left spectrum.
mrc / dpa