Survey: Germans' optimism about Europe is waning
A good six months before the European elections, Germans' confidence in the European Union is waning. In a survey conducted by the European Parliament, 58% of Germans said they were "fairly optimistic" or even "very optimistic" about the future of the EU. Three years ago, 72 percent of Germans were still optimistic, 14 percent more.
The trend is also confirmed on average across EU countries: at the end of 2020, i.e. at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, 66% of Europeans were still optimistic about the future of the EU. In the current Eurobarometer survey, the figure is only 60%.
This downward trend can also be observed in countries such as France, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and Poland. France comes last in the current survey, with only 46% still optimistic about the EU and 49% pessimistic.
There are fears of a shift to the right in the European elections at the beginning of June. At the end of November, the Europe Elects platform, which extrapolates opinion polls from the 27 EU countries, predicted significant gains for the "Identity and Democracy" (ID) group, to which the AfD also belongs. It could therefore become the fourth strongest group after the Conservatives, Social Democrats and Liberals. In Germany, the election will take place on June 9.
In a Eurobarometer survey conducted this June, two thirds of Germans said that the EU was failing in its fight against corruption. Six out of ten German citizens expressed dissatisfaction with the measures taken to combat the massive rise in the cost of living. More than half of Germans were dissatisfied with European climate and asylum policy.
A total of 26,500 EU citizens were surveyed for the latest Eurobarometer, including around 1,500 people in Germany.
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Despite the downward trend in European optimism, with only 58% of Germans expressing optimism about the EU's future, compared to 72% three years ago, German participation in the upcoming European elections remains significant. In the survey conducted this June, a majority of Germans expressed dissatisfaction with the EU's handling of corruption, cost of living, and climate and asylum policies.
Source: www.ntv.de
