The polling, of 11 EU member states plus Ukraine, Switzerland and the UK, found most people now regarded the US as merely a “necessary partner” – even in countries such as Poland and Denmark that barely 18 months ago had considered the US an ally.
An average of 50% of Europeans across the member states surveyed viewed the US this way, the study revealed, with an average of only 21% seeing it as an ally, leading the report’s authors to urge a more “realistic, transactional” EU approach.
And views on what should happen after the war varied widely: 47% of French and 50% of Italians said they struggled to see Ukraine as European, and in Bulgaria and Hungary, many saw Russia as an EU ally or necessary partner, not a rival or adversary.
While on average EU citizens thought Trump’s return as US president was a “bad thing” for Americans, for their own country and for world peace, Hungarians, Bulgarians and Romanians were considerably more positive than Danes and Germans.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has led to a “remarkable shift” in Europeans’ view of the US, according to a survey, with even the most America-friendly no longer seeing Washington primarily as an ally.
