45% Germans against supplying Leopard tanks to Ukraine

There is widespread opposition among the German population to supplying Ukraine with the Leopard 2 tanks, reported dpa.

The tanks are widely seen as an icon of the country's military technology, according to a survey commissioned by dpa and published on Sunday.

The representative survey of 2,075 respondents conducted by the YouGov institute found 45% against supplying the tanks which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has specifically requested.

The survey found 33% in favour, with the remaining 22% not stating a preference.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has turned down repeated requests from the Ukrainian government for the battle tanks, noting that no other countries supporting the Ukrainian war effort have provided arms of this kind. The Germans have also said that Ukrainian tank crews would need intensive training to use the Leopard 2.

The division among the population is reflected within the ruling three-way coalition. While politicians from Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) are in general opposed, many from the Greens and the liberal FDP are in favour. The main conservative opposition bloc also in general favours providing the tanks.

The survey found that among the general population, 41% of SPD supporters opposed delivery, with 40% in favour. Exactly half of Green supporters backed supplying the tanks, with 25% opposed. In the FDP, 42% are against and 33% in favour.

Supporters of the conservative opposition parties are largely against, with opposition strongest in the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) where 76% are opposed and just 13% in favour.