Overview
- The MIDEM ‘Polarisierungsbarometer’, published Tuesday, reports about 54 percent of Germans want continued support for Ukraine while roughly 28–29 percent favor closer ties with Russia and the share taking an extreme pro‑Russia stance rose to 17.3 percent.
- Researchers found that the Ukraine question has overtaken immigration as the most emotionally charged political issue in Germany, even though overall measured polarization did not rise compared with 2025.
- The study documents strong affective polarization among supporters of the AfD and the Greens and higher negative attitudes toward opponents among men, people over 70 and those with lower education.
- Public policy attitudes shifted: two‑thirds favor restricting overall immigration, support for easing skilled‑worker immigration fell from 61 percent to 56 percent year‑on‑year, and about 52 percent back higher defense spending for peacekeeping.
- The findings come from a representative YouGov survey of 2,785 German adults in March 2026 as part of an almost 20,000‑person, eight‑country MIDEM/YouGov EU study and were released by MIDEM at TU Dresden on November 10, 2026.