Europeans back higher defence spending amid Russia threat, poll finds | Nato

A faced with an unpredictable Donald Trump and an aggressive Russia support the increase in expenditures for defense and compulsory military service in some countries.

A SURVEY OF 12 COUNTRIES For the European Foreign Relations Council, Poland (70%), Denmark (70%) and the UK (57%) showed a majority for defense expenditures.

Support was softer elsewhere, but large minorities in Germany (47%), Spain (46%) and France (45%) supported larger military budgets. Italy was a contrary: only 17% preferred higher expenditures and against 57%.

Europeans in many countries supported re-introducing compulsory military service, except for the important exception of children aged 18-29-those who are likely to be called in an armed conflict. France (62%), Germany (53%) and Poland (51%) were the most powerful supporters of military service.

The opposition to this idea, Italy (against 50%), the United Kingdom (53%), Spain (56%) and Hungary (58%), including support in countries, overweight.

Elderly people were most enthusiastic to the draft. For example, in Germany, over 49% of over 70s support the military service, while 46% of 18 to 29 -year -old children opposed a net total idea.

The research also found that the European people were sharply divided by Trump, who had confused traditional commitment to Washington after his return to the US presidency. Countries with traditionally strong ties with the US become more skeptical to the US system: 74% and 67% in England and Germany think that this is broken.

Ivan Krastev and Mark Leonard from ECFR said in an article to accompany the findings. “In many respects, the relations of the far -right parties with Trump begin to resemble the relationship between former communist parties with the Soviet Union in the Cold War. They have to defend Trump and imitate him.”

Writers, usually inspired by Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the European Extreme Right Parties are looking at Trump’s system as a model. In contrast, voters criticize Trump and the US political system for the mainstream parties.

There is an extreme right and national populist loyalty to Trump, despite the great minorities for these parties, he sees the re -election of bad news for the Americans. For example, 34% of AFD voters in Germany, 28% of French rally supporters and 30% of the UK voters see Trump’s re -election as “very bad” or “quite bad for the Americans.

The findings come from the alliance members this week on the eve of a NATO summit to increase defense expenditures to at least 5% of GDP until 2032. Spain rejected the target as “unreasonable” and “opposite productive .. Italy wants to delay the last date until 2035.

Voters in most countries participating in the survey are skeptical that Europe may be independent of the USA. It is more likely that citizens in Germany, Spain, Poland and Italy will say that it would be very difficult or practically impossible for the EU to be independent of the US defense and security. Only a thin majority (52%) in Denmark thought it was possible for the EU to gain autonomy in the field of defense and security.

Danish, which was directly threatened by Trump’s allegations about Greenland, showed the highest antipathy against the US President: 86% believed that the US political system was broken, while 76% of Trump was re -elected as a bad thing for US citizens.

Many European peoples support the development of an alternative national nuclear deterrent in Poland (60%), Portugal (62%) and Spain (54%) with the strongest support. Supporting such an idea in Germany was only 39%. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his country could share nuclear weapons with France and England, but this could not take its place in most Europe’s protective shield.

With an encouraging sign for Kiev, Trump pushes Ukraine to quit occupied regions or to remove economic sanctions against Russia, most of them are following the European USA.

Even in Hungary, which has a government that constantly slows the agreement on EU sanctions, 40% opposes copying any movement to remove the US sanctions, while 38% in favor. In other countries, there were strong majority against imitating any pro -Russian policy that could come from the United States in Ukraine.

The authors of the report offer two explanations for this support for Ukraine. “A benevolent interpretation is that Europeans support an autonomous European policy to support Ukraine and do not want to blindly follow Trump’s leadership. However, another reading of these data is that Europeans want to continue to fight on behalf of the Ukrainians.”

Leonard said: “Our survey shows that Europeans feel insecure and Trump’s defense expenditures increases the demand for the reproduction of military service and the extension of nuclear capabilities in most Europe.”

Krasthev, the president of the Center of Liberal Strategies, said, “The real effect of Trump’s second arrival is that the US now offers a reliable model for Europe’s distant right.

The surveys assigned by ECFR spoke to 16,440 adults last month.