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THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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particularly salient in Germany (up 14 %) and
Spain (up 10 %). At 35 %, the affirmation of
faith across all countries remains at a relatively
low level, however. Italians themselves shares
this distrust: barely four out of ten are positive
about their own country’s role in the EU – the
lowest level of self-perception out of all coun-
tries surveyed.
Poland displays even worse results with re-
gard to its perception in other countries. Just as
in 2015, only one in every five persons have a
positive view of its role. Nor does Poland have a
good image even among its eastern European
partner countries: Only one out of four Slovaks
and Czechs trust their neighbouring country.
Moreover, trust in Poland has eroded in four out
of the six western countries since the last parlia-
mentary elections, from which the conservative
rightist party Prawo i prawiedliwosc (PiS) (in
English: law and justice) emerged with an abso-
lute majority.
Trust and confidence in political parties
to represent the interests of one’s own
country
Trust and confidence in the EU depends not
least on how well or poorly one considers the
interest of one’s own country represented in the
Community. Here political parties and their
leaders play a major role. As in 2015, it was en-
quired which party citizens believed to best rep-
resent the interests of their own country.
Viewed across all eight countries, the wide
distribution of trust in various parties is striking.
The previous dominance of the two major blocs
of Conservatives and Social Democrats appears
obsolete. Across all countries, 17 % place their
trust and confidence in parties organized under
the roof of the European People’s Party (EPP),
Social Democratic parties obtain 16 %. Both fig-
ures only add up to one-third of citizens.
Eight % place their trust in liberal parties, five %
in parties along the left part of the spectrum,
three % in parties from the parliamentary party
group of European Conservatives and Reformers
(ECR), and two % in green parties. The compe-
tence ascribed to other parties that are not part
of the large party families is remarkably great at
six %. Most mentions were for Macron’s newly
founded party La République en Marche (LREM).
It is interesting to note the large share of
populist or right-wing populist parties (11 %).
Compared to 2015 this means a growth of
two % – not necessarily a “thumbs-up” for the
stepped-up efforts of EU states to close ranks
more tightly. One positive finding, however, is
that the share of persons not placing their trust
and confidence in any party has fallen from 19
to 13 %.
Conclusion
The EU has gone through a decade of external
and internal crises, some of which remain un-
solved. In addition, the first exit of a Member
State and authoritarian tendencies in some
eastern European states are casting serious
doubts on the cohesion of the EU.
Ongoing challenges have an impact on citi-
zens’ opinion in eight European states. Coping
with the refugee crisis continues to be seen as
the most important task of the European Union,
while unemployment, terrorism and threats to
peace are further causes of concern. Large sec-
tions of the population also fear that Brexit
could have a negative impact on the European
Union.
Overall, however, the findings offer grounds
for hope. Majorities in seven out of eight countries