Survey: Majority of Germans support Söder’s nuclear power plans

A majority of Germans support the plans of Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder to continue operating nuclear power plants on their own initiative. 53 percent of citizens agree with the CSU leader’s demand that nuclear power plants should continue to operate under the responsibility of the federal states. 42 percent, however, criticize his initiative. This is shown by a representative survey by the opinion research institute Civey for the Augsburger Allgemeine (Thursday edition). The rest are undecided. The topic is polarizing: While 45 percent of Germans rate Söder’s plans as “clearly correct”, 38 percent consider them “clearly wrong”.

On April 15, the last three German nuclear power plants went offline, including the Bavarian nuclear power plant Isar 2. Originally, they should have been shut down at the end of 2022. Due to the energy crisis, however, the government allowed them to continue to run until mid-April. Söder spoke of a serious mistake in phasing out nuclear power at the current time.

Greens against Söder’s idea

The survey shows that the mood in Bavaria is similar to the nationwide result. 55 percent of Bavarians can imagine that the nuclear power plants will continue to be operated independently. Four out of ten respondents see it differently.

Söder receives support for his nuclear initiative primarily from the political camps of the Union, FDP and AfD. However, voters from the Left, SPD and Greens consider it wrong. The nuclear plan of the Bavarian head of state meets with resistance, especially among sympathizers of the Greens: According to a survey, 90 percent reject Söder’s idea.