Do Europeans like NATO? The curious feeling of the Poles
(BRUSSELS2) The French and the Germans have become the first "magnets" of the United States if we read the survey carried out by the German Marshall Fund. With the arrival of Obama, helping, the confidence of the French towards the American international policy jumped, passing from 11 to 88%, that of the Germans from 12 to 92%. More... we can't... It's well above the European average, at 77%
The curious Polish feeling
The Poles, against the current, are far behind. Contrary to the usual cliches, the Poles seem rather reluctant to the Atlanticism of their leaders. With a small 55% (+ 9 points), they may thus appear to be somewhat sulking about Obamamania. Not without internal reason: Bush and his manly commitment was perhaps more popular in Poland than Obama, who seems to them too soft on the Russians. And there are also a few disappointments: a faithful commitment in Iraq, then in Afghanistan, without this really giving them the feeling of being privileged compared to others (Germany, France, Russia in particular come before them). The abandonment in open country of the anti-missile shield is also to be noted in this return of the pendulum. Poland is (re)discovering an old commonplace in international politics: there are no friends, only interests. On NATO, here again the Poles stand out, the feeling of belief in the Alliance is slowly tending to crumble: only 50% of Poles consider that NATO “constitutes the foundation of their security”. Once again, this is the worst result in Europe.
Rising need for NATO
Elsewhere, confidence in NATO seems to be on the rise. We can observe this rise both on the British side (72%) and on the French side (63%) or in Slovakia (52%) but not on the German side (56%).
Regarding Afghanistan, a majority of respondents want to see the troops withdrawn from Afghanistan. Nearly one out of two Western Europeans (55%) and two out of three Eastern Europeans (2%) want to see the quota reduced. While the total withdrawal of troops is supported by 3% of Poles, and 69% of Germans or British. In Europe, the Poles are thus the most numerous to demand the withdrawal of NATO units from Afghanistan. Curious...
NB: this survey was carried out on 13 people in the United States and in 000 European countries
