German CDU’s survey about the EU’s combustion engine ban fails

The German conservative political party CDU had to stop an online survey about people's opinions about the EU banning sales of new ICE models from 2035. There were simply too many votes in favour of the ban.

In the above-mentioned online survey, the CDU asked: ‘Do you support the call to revoke the ban on combustion engines?’ and received significantly more nays than yays in the first few hours – although multiple votes were possible. Less than 24 hours after the poll went live, the party closed it and people could no longer cast a vote on the website called “yes to cars.”

“This survey has been massively manipulated. Tens of thousands of votes have been cast automatically,” the website states. It continues: “This is completely unacceptable. The poll has thus been switched off.”

According to German media, on Saturday morning, 86 per cent of the more than 145,000 participants in the survey voted against abolishing the ban on combustion engines, and only 14 per cent voted in favour of lifting the ban. The crux of the matter: ahead of the European elections, the CDU/CSU is loudly announcing that it is in favour of abolishing the ban on combustion engines in the EU by 2035. Against this backdrop, the poll is a disaster for the party. While the CDU assumes manipulation by means of automated voting, Julia Klöckner, the party’s economic policy spokesperson, even speaks of “unprecedented criminal energy.”

A poll by the German newspaper Bild on the same topic is also offline again. Here, too, a clear majority was in favour of phasing out combustion engines, as in a survey by t-online.de, which is still online.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) has launched an educational and counter-campaign – in the form of a petition in favour of maintaining the current EU regulation. According to the DUH, the CDU/CSU is torpedoing the only effective EU climate protection measure in the transport sector with its campaign. And: “The CDU/CSU are giving the impression that it’s a question of “for or against cars” – but the ban on combustion engines only applies to new cars and only to the drive technology.”

wiwo.de, aktion.cdu.de, bild.de, duh.de (petition) via duh.de (all in German)