Majority of Europeans have been labelled “inconsistent supporters of democracy” more likely to appreciate a strong leader, by a European Union NGO.
Research of European voters across Italy, Poland, Sweden, France, Spain, Germany, and Romania by European Movement International, a Brussels-based organisation that allows the European Union to lobby itself, has found just 36 per cent of people are what it calls “consistent supporters of democracy.
The figure was reached through a series of questions following a standard polling industry formula to gauge acceptance of democracy used world wide, asking for instance how they rate “Having a strong leader who does not have to bother with parliament and elections” and “having a democratic system”.
Other softball questions include “how important is it to you to live in a country that is governed democratically?”, and asking the respondent whether they believe “In some circumstances, a non-democratic government can be preferable.”
Per the European Movement International, they found the most consistent supporters of democracy in Europe lived in Sweden, but even there just 52 per cent didn’t answer in favour of strong-man leaders or a military junta. The least enthusiastic was Spain, where 75 per cent of respondents selected anti-democratic answers.
Politico cited the words of Petros Fassoulas, the secretary-general of the European Movement, who interpreted the results to say that Europeans are not naturally inclined to authoritarianism, but rather to show they have become disillusioned with the state of the democracy presently on offer.
He said: “The low percentage of consistent support for democracy is truly worrying… It does not mean though that our fellow citizens are anti-democratic. But they are disappointed, disempowered and disillusioned; the very things that sow the seeds of authoritarianism”.
Perhaps just as alarming for the pro-Brussels lobbying body were other questions on trust, which found that Europeans are over twice as likely to trust their own national governments, on 41 per cent, over the European Union on 19 per cent to make positive decisions for their lives. Continent-wide, just six per cent said they have a “lot” of trust in the EU to make the right decisions.
Underlining the continued preference for nation states over the European super-state, the majority were shown to agree in every country that their government should pursue the national interest “even if this sometimes conflicts with the interests of other countries”. Eastern-European states Poland and Romania came out on top of this measure, with 73-per-cent net approval for the national interest.
Read the full article here