Half of the respondents in Spain have not changed their view of Germany as compared to pre-crisis times. 13 percent even think better of the country now. Only barely one third (even only 19 percent among younger people aged 18 to 34) of the respondents say that they view Germany more negatively than they used to. The opinion that Germans have of Spain has not changed for 63 percent of the respondents either. It only lowered for one third.
"The results of this survey show that the Spaniards still have a positive opinion of Germany in spite of great economic difficulty," Liz Mohn, deputy chairwoman of the board of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, interprets the survey's results. The German-Spanish relations and the friendship between the two countries and people were more stable and resilient than it was often believed.
This is also documented by the further results of the survey: The Federal citizens generally have a positive attitude towards supporting Spain in managing its youth unemployment. 60 percent of the German respondents believe that it would be sensible for young Spaniards looking for a training position to come to Germany. On the Iberian Peninsula, 55 percent of the respondents can imagine young people going to Germany to take training positions there. However, 80 percent of the respondents in Spain are aware that the problems of youth unemployment in their country cannot be solved in this manner.
Whether or not Germany can help Spain with its labor market situation is more critically viewed by the respondents in Germany. While 50 percent believe that Spanish specialists should come to Germany to work here, 49 percent are opposed to this. 60 percent of the respondents in Germany consider this option to be unlikely to make much of a difference. In Spain, two out of every three respondents believe that the German labor market generally offers good employment opportunities for Spanish specialist. However, they do not believe that moving north will be a general solution to clearly improve the unemployment situation in their own country.
The general improvement of the situation on the labor market and among young people is a task that can only be solved right in Spain according to 91 percent of the Spaniards and 70 percent of the Germans.
The German-Spanish forum was brought to life in parallel with the state visit of German Federal President Johannes Rau in Madrid in November 2002, at the suggestion of the Spanish and German gov-ernments. It is a platform for an exchange of opinions among leading representatives from politics, economy, culture and science of both countries. Subjects of the conference this year include the view that Spaniards and Germans have of each other, professional training and youth, as well as factors of influence on the growth of small and medium-sized companies.