Almost half of Europeans see Donald Trump as “an enemy of Europe”, somewhat extra price the danger of struggle with Russia as excessive and greater than two-thirds imagine their nation wouldn’t have the ability to defend itself within the occasion of such a struggle, a survey has discovered.
The nine-country ballot for the Paris-based European affairs debate platform Le Grand Continent additionally discovered that just about three-quarters of respondents needed their nation to remain within the EU, with virtually as many saying leaving the union had harmed the UK.
Jean-Yves Dormagen, a political science professor and founding father of the polling company Cluster17, stated: “Europe is just not solely going through rising dangers, it is usually present process a metamorphosis of its historic, geopolitical and political setting. The general image [of the survey] portrays a Europe that’s anxious, that’s deeply conscious of its vulnerabilities and that’s struggling to undertaking itself positively into the longer term.”
The polling discovered that a median of 48% of individuals throughout the 9 nations see Trump as an outright foe – starting from highs of 62% in Belgium and 57% in France to lows of 37% in Croatia and 19% in Poland.
“Throughout the continent, Trumpism is clearly thought-about a hostile drive,” Dormagen stated, including that this notion was hardening, with fewer individuals than in December 2024 describing Trump as “neither good friend nor foe” and extra as undoubtedly hostile.
Nevertheless, Europeans nonetheless view the connection with the US as strategically necessary: when requested what place the EU ought to undertake in direction of the US authorities, the most well-liked choice (48%) was compromise.
The survey in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Croatia, Belgium and the Netherlands additionally discovered a relative majority (51%) felt the danger of open war with Russia within the coming years was excessive, and 18% thought-about it very excessive.
Dormagen stated such a consequence “would have been unthinkable just some years in the past and indicators the shift of European opinion towards a brand new geopolitical regime through which the potential for direct battle on the continent is now extensively accepted”.
