Why is our democracy sick? What do the Greeks think? – 2024-05-08 05:51:53

The opinion of Greek men and women on the future of the EU, international leaders and the countries they consider Greece’s allies is reflected in the second part of the survey “What do Greeks think 2024” by diaNEOSis presented by “To Vima”. The survey, which is carried out every two years, was undertaken this year by Metron Analysis between January 23 and February 6.

diaNEOSis research focuses on the way in which Greek men and women perceive Greece’s position in the world, but it starts with how they perceive their personal situation, where negative feelings clearly prevail over positive ones.

Insecurity and frustration occupy the first places (with 49.9% and 44.3% respectively), followed by feelings of anger (29.7%) and shame (16.8%). Of the positive emotions, only optimism manages to rank relatively high, in fourth place (21.7%). The only difference at hand, compared to previous DIANOSIS surveys, is that optimism was in second place in 2019 at 30%.

The collective pessimism is also reflected in the assessment of democracy in Greece, where this year marks 50 years since the post-colonial transition: less than 1 in 3 (27.4%) consider our democracy “strong”, while 35% consider it “weak”.

The assessment of Greece’s progress in the EU

On the contrary, the evaluation of Greece’s European course seems more positive, as 64.8% evaluate it “positively” and “rather positively”, with 35.2% evaluating it negatively. This positive assessment is accompanied by a relative improvement in the perceptions of the prospects of the EU in the near future: 35.9% consider that the EU in the next decade will continue to exist in the form it has today and 14.7% adopt the scenario of deepening in the direction of federalization. However, it is worth pointing out that 36.8% consider a split of the EU more likely with the withdrawal of certain countries and 10.3% the possibility of its dissolution.

The EU, however, is evaluated by Greeks as a power in decline rather than in rise, as its descriptions prevail as “unreliable” (36.4%), “in decline” (34.2%) and “weak” (32 .2%), at the expense of more positive ones, such as “strong” (30%), “reliable” (29.5%) and “on the rise” (16.7%).

In relation to which states we consider to be better allies in our foreign affairs, it is worth pointing out that France (50%) seems in recent years to have established itself as a privileged ally of Greece. This is followed by the USA (17%), Russia (5%) and Israel (4%), whose popularity has declined since March 2022, possibly linked to the war in Gaza.

However, in a more analytical assessment of some of the world’s powerful countries, the US and Russia are rated as strong but unreliable and in decline rather than rise. On the other hand, China receives positive ratings (“strong”: 67%, “rising”: 58.7%, “trustworthy”: 22.7%).

Macron is popular, Sunak is unknown

The image of the countries is complemented by the image of their leaders. In this light, the high popularity of France is confirmed, which goes hand in hand with the high popularity of Emmanuel Macronby far the first among the international personalities evaluated (63% positive opinions).

As for Turkey, its image Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains at low levels, although with a tendency to improve (16.1% compared to only 5.7% in 2022), also reflecting the improvement in the image of Greek-Turkish relations. On the other hand, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom shows remarkably weak popularity Rishi Sunak (12.6%, with 1 in 5 stating that they have not heard of him).

However, an interesting reversal of trends should also be noted. In the March 2022 count, immediately after Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky gathered positive opinions of 34.3% and was in second place after Macron, while the image of the Russian president Vladimir Putin had collapsed to 18.8% (from 41.3% in 2019).

But today, Putin’s popularity is recovering (31.4%) while Zelensky’s is showing a decline (27.2%).