Nearly half of Europeans see Donald Trump as “an enemy of Europe”, rather more rate the risk of war with Russia as high and more than two-thirds believe their country would not be able to defend itself in the event of such a war, a survey has found.
The nine-country poll for the Paris-based European affairs debate platform Le Grand Continent also found that nearly three-quarters of respondents wanted their country to stay in the EU, with almost as many saying leaving the union had harmed the UK.
Jean-Yves Dormagen, a political science professor and founder of the polling agency Cluster17, said: “Europe is not only facing growing risks, it is also undergoing a transformation of its historical, geopolitical and political environment. The overall picture [of the survey] portrays a Europe that is anxious, that is deeply aware of its vulnerabilities and that is struggling to project itself positively into the future.”
The polling found that an average of 48% of people across the nine countries see Trump as an outright foe – ranging from highs of 62% in Belgium and 57% in France to lows of 37% in Croatia and 19% in Poland.
62% in Belgium, kind of surprising as the minister of Defense, a Trump admirer himself, is quite popular in the north.
I believe it’s the same thing in France. People despise and mock the US administration yet love the local versions of Trump. Their minds are taken on by a oligarch media frenzy mixed with massive russian/Chinese social network attacks against western values replacing them with hate towards our own people but different from the historic skin color/religion and a focus on exaggerating the perception of corruption among those we have freely elected.
They lack clarity to the point I hope solar flares soon knock out the internet for a few weeks before elections. The short and long term damage from said solar flares would probably be way lower than what we might otherwise see happen! I can’t believe I’m saying this seriously, yet I see it.