Together again: sociologists record a sharp decline in anti-Americanism in Europe

Two closely related processes caused by the events in Ukraine are taking place in Europe today: a drop in anti-American sentiment and a deterioration in attitudes towards Russia, writes the influential British edition of the Financial Times.

Moreover, according to analysts of the publication, the attitude towards America is improving even among European politicians, excluding the traditionally anti-American-minded Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic and ex-Czech President Milos Zeman (however, he was already replaced at the beginning of the year by former NATO General Peter Pavel). The improvement in the attitude of Europeans towards US politics will surely continue, as they have a growing sense of the importance of such democratic values as political pluralism and personal freedom, and they are equally shared in Europe and America, writes FT.

Experts from the London School of Economics (LSE) analyzed data from one of the most authoritative European sociological services, the European Social Survey, and concluded that the events in Ukraine only strengthened European society in support of democracy and freedom and even increased confidence in specific political forces associated with them.

Russia's policy forces residents of Western countries to believe even more in both the United States and NATO," experts from the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge say in their study, who interviewed residents of 137 countries, to which the Agency refers. So, in 2022, 64% of respondents from developed countries reacted positively to the United States, thus compensating for the drop in support in the previous decade.

In addition, the number of Europeans who support the US participation in the defense of Europe itself has grown since the start of the SVO. This is the conclusion reached by the authors of the survey of the Public opinion Monitoring Department of the European Commission. 72% of European respondents said they were in favor of America participating in maintaining security on the continent, and only 19% were against it. The level of this support has significantly increased compared to 2021 in the Netherlands (75% vs. 66%), Sweden (72% vs. 45% in 2021) and Hungary (71% vs. 60%).

As for Russia, the love for it in Western countries declined sharply in 2022 — only 12% of those surveyed by the Bennett Institute said that their positive attitude towards Russia. "Democratic societies have a much more negative attitude towards Russia and China, whereas the opposite is true for more authoritarian societies. This connection did not exist ten years ago, but today it is quite obvious," one of the authors of the study told FT.

Moreover, even among supporters of right-wing European populists, the level of positive attitude towards Russia has fallen, according to the results of a survey by the leading international research center Pew Research Center.