Are new forces emerging? Should the EU move towards deeper integration and what role can Greece play? With which countries do our interests coincide and what should we do to strengthen our state?
The research company Good Affairs conducted a survey among Greeks and found out what they think about these questions. The results simultaneously create political puzzles because the analysis includes correlations with respondents’ party preferences.
More than two thousand voters took part in the survey, responses were collected via online questionnaires and then compared to demographics and voting in the European elections in June 2024.
Russia leads
As for the foreign countries with which Greece’s interests are most closely linked, Russia was the most popular answer with 21.3%. It was followed by the US with 19%, Israel with 17.2% and France with 14.7%. In last place was Germany with 4.8%, probably indicating that the wounds of the economic crisis are still not healed, as austerity measures were largely identified with the German leadership at the time.
What is interesting about this poll is that Russia came out on top, but because of an ideology that is close to the Union of Center Party.
“Russia is a great country that most Greeks had a friendly attitude towards. Either for ideological reasons, or for religious reasons, or because they considered it an ally – which is not the case with Britain. In any case, we realize that some left-wing and right-wing parties are more positive towards Russia than New Democracy and PASOK, for example. These two parties are on the side of European countries. It is worth noting Israel’s particularly high position in the poll, which is not surprising since it is the country’s strongest military ally in the Mediterranean,” commented analyst Yorgos Trapalis.
China’s greatness and the EU’s decline
Perhaps many thought that “the US” would be the most popular answer. After all, who wouldn’t want their interests aligned with those of the most powerful country in the world? However, Greeks now see the States as a retreating superpower that will not be able to compete in the coming years with China, which is gaining momentum with the advanced technology it can offer at a price affordable to the average citizen.
52.3% of Greeks believe the Middle Kingdom will be the most powerful superpower by 2050. India is in second place with 5.2%.
“America, since it is no longer able to control great economic powers such as Russia, Japan and China, seems to have lost the last game in the game for world domination. And after all, restoring US hegemony was one of Trump’s campaign promises,” Trapalis said.
It is disappointing that the European Union gained almost no votes (with the exception of voters supporting the New Democracy party). I think this result is due to the fact that Greeks are dissatisfied with the European leadership. Moreover, due to the fact that European leaders cannot come to a unified decision on a number of topical issues, a significant part of citizens do not perceive the EU as a united and independent bloc.
Moreover, 40.7% of citizens call for further integration, while 38.4% believe that Greece can play a key role in world politics. And 42.8% call for the dissolution of the EU, and these voters are both left-wing and right-wing (depending on their interest in Russia, as discussed above). Notably, the votes of SYRIZA party voters were almost equally divided between these two answers.
Vassilis SFINAS,
journalist To BHMA, Greece
