An overwhelming majority of Europeans are delighted with Joe Biden’s victory against Donald Trump, but the restoration of the transatlantic link, undermined by the outgoing president, will nonetheless be very delicate for his Democratic successor, after his takeover. functions, Wednesday January 20. This is the main lesson of a survey carried out on behalf of the think tank European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). The survey was carried out by the YouGov and Datapraxis institutes between November and December 2020 among 15,000 people in eleven European countries, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
According to this large study, the attitudes of Europeans towards the United States have “A massive change” during the Trump years. The poll was carried out before the invasion of the Capitol by ultra supporters of the defeated president on January 6. But the majority of respondents consider, in most of the countries studied, that the American political system is ” broken “. They believe that China will be more powerful than the United States within a decade. And are of the opinion that the European continent should no longer depend so much on a country in decline to ensure its defense or represent its interests.
The crisis of mistrust is directly linked to the outgoing president’s four tumultuous years, in particular with regard to relations with his European “allies”, with whom he has never ceased to cross swords on the strategic (NATO), commercial, or climate. Thus, 54% of those questioned consider that “The world is in a worse situation because of the Trump presidency”, against 18% of a contrary opinion – one in five people not wishing to decide.
“More trustworthy”
One in three Europeans, and a little more than one in two Germans, consider that “Americans are no longer trustworthy” after voting Trump in 2016. Only the majority of Hungarians and Poles – two countries whose leaders have supported the Trump administration to the end – do not share this point of view.
Can Joe Biden’s rise to power reverse the trend? For nearly one in two respondents, the United States is “More likely” able to overcome their internal divisions to deal with global problems, climate change, peace in the Middle East, relations with China and European security. They are 48% in Germany, 52% in France and only 41% in the United Kingdom to think so. But a small third of those polled in the eleven countries consider, on the contrary, ” more likely “ that the United States is too absorbed in its internal problems to invest in the settlement of world affairs.
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