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European sentiments towards the US hit an all-time low

111 points by marcyb5st 4mo ago

lyu07282 4mo ago
Atlanticist polls are probably more interesting (if there even is such a thing) when considering which questions they didn't even ask, rather than the questions they asked confirming all the establishment positions anyway.
- shevy-java 4mo ago
  Would this make a difference though? The USA abandoned Europeans already before Trump. You only have to look at the polls. Thus, it makes sense to completely cut the ties, build up a nuclear arsenal and offset the mafia in Moscow. It makes no sense for Europeans to want to depend on the USA here; I have no idea who came up with that idea. Most likely the USA as it helped them project power. See how many bombing campaigns started from US bases in Germany, most famously from Ramstein.
  - CarlitosHighway 4mo ago
    Of course. If the US builds military bases in your country, it profits THEM, not you.
    - lyu07282 4mo ago
      It's a protection racket, except now we get to cut our health care so we can own the knife on our throat.
  - lyu07282 4mo ago
    Well the establishment position in the EU is that Trump is an outlier and that relations will normalize once he is removed from power, then business as usual can continue. Beyond that broad agreement with US - EU alignment on foreign policy (NATO, Ukraine, Israel, Iran, China) must continue even under Trump. Trump is even seen as an opportunity to convince Europeans to increase its own "NATO compatible" military spending. What I meant was it would be more interesting to see any opinions that conflict with that above establishment consensus. For example on negotiated settlement of the Ukraine war vs. continuing the forever war. Like where do Europeans disagree with the strategic interests of the US, do they really 100% align as this poll makes it appear? How is that possible?
    - knorker 4mo ago
      > the establishment position in the EU is that Trump is an outlier and that relations will normalize once he is removed from power Is it? This is not entirely clear. And if it seemed the case, it's increasingly not looking realistic. It won't fully go back to normal, now that it's clear that the US is one election away from not only backing away from commitments, but itself threatening invasion of supposed allies. A defense partner that sometimes announces that it's no longer an ally isn't really a defense partner, since The Enemy has the choice of when to attack and an understanding of game theory. And as a reliable trading partner the US apparently has very poor guardrails for suddenly not honoring deals and established norms. Turns out that the only checks&balances in the US political system is impeachment (which, as we know, is a political and not judicial process), and it's apparently impotent to protect against a rogue executive branch. "This era could see the alliance seriously weakened – or irreparably changed" from the EU Parliament report "The Near-term Future of the Transatlantic Relationship". There's also https://carnegieendowment.org/europe/strategic-europe/2026/05/europeans-are-quiet-quitting-the-united-states https://carnegieendowment.org/europe/strategic-europe/2026/0...
      - marcyb5st 4mo ago
        Yeah I agree. As the saying goes: trust is built in drops and lost in buckets. A lot of time needs to pass while the US behaves as a proper ally if they want to go back to the status quo. At least IMHO as this is how I feel as an EU citizen.
      - lyu07282 4mo ago
        I'm not saying that is realistic either, I just think EU leadership thinks it will return to "normalcy" after Trump is gone and they are acting accordingly. There has been no break from the US, they are as aligned on foreign policy as always, EU countries are acting to protect US interests, first and foremost, not to restore their own national sovereignty. The one part that is brilliant maneuvering now is the EU spending increases on their own militaries: You keep the dependency, US military bases and surveillance installations, including US nuclear weapons on your soil (or even more bases like in the case of Greenland), you align on every military intervention under the sun (including Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and the greater Israel project) and you get a perfect pretext to do large scale austerity? It is quite incredible they were able to sell all that with a straight face to the europeans. You know I would have asked the Europeans if they are okay with another migrant crisis as a result of another US intervention in the middle east, or if they think it's fair they have to spend on their own defense but don't get to seek diplomatic solutions to conflicts if that goes against US interests. The rules based order is dead, might is right has truly won and Europeans can lick the boot that crushes them is the truth. All of that to say there is a reason EU is falling victim to far-right fascist parties if that's the only alternative to this clusterfuck that is afforded to them.
- somelamer567 4mo ago
  Is there an establishment in the room with us right now? Let me know, because I want to make sure that I'm aligned with this mystical Western Atlantacist Anglo-Saxon (insert Russian propaganda snarl-word du jour) hive mind.
  - lyu07282 4mo ago
    To understand what I'm talking about listen to the WEF speech by Canadian PM Mark Carney from a few months ago, https://youtu.be/izDAOvHz5Wc https://youtu.be/izDAOvHz5Wc
musikele 4mo ago
speaking about defending ourselves: there's a huge gap between "willing to defend" and "actually be able to defend" ourselves
- CarlitosHighway 4mo ago
  But we're now spending and working on this gap like crazy.
  - 4gotunameagain 4mo ago
    And we will end up using those weapons against eachother, again. As if we haven't seen that film before. Or even worse, keep selling them to Israel as Germany is doing, because one genocide was not enough and two wrongs make a right.
    - x3ro 4mo ago
      I don't understand why this is being downvoted. It's not unreasonable to assume that increased militarization, coupled with increased nationalistic sentiment, could lead to inner-european conflicts escalating into wars. Sure, right now Russia is the enemy, but who knows what'll happen in ten years. And the military machinery is not just going to be scaled down immediately. If he's being downvoted for his "selling weapons to Israel" comment, I just want to highlight that even a majority of Germans is against it, with 80% not wanting to send weapons [1]. Of course there are different polls, and others find that "only" 30% say "stop them", plus another 43% saying "limit them [2]. Either way, only a small minority is pro "send all the weapons". [1]: https://www.plan.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/detail/80-prozent-der-deutschen-fordern-einen-stopp-der-waffenlieferungen-an-israel.html https://www.plan.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/detail/80-proz... [2]: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1615302/umfrage/umfrage-zu-deutschen-waffenexporte-nach-israel/ https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1615302/umfra...
      - chatmasta 4mo ago
        Follow the Yugoslavia model and ship soldiers from each country to live and work with each other in their first years in military service. Then again… Yugoslavia maybe not the best example here…
aaron695 4mo ago
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shevy-java 4mo ago
> Europeans embrace self-reliance and are clear-eyed about Donald Trump—but do not expect a permanent break from the US. That's a wrong analysis IMO. I think NATO as it was is completely dead. Europeans need a nuclear arsenal too (french and UK nukes are for those two countries only; that does not protect several hundred millions people). Russia is threatening escalation every day, including using nukes. Europeans need their own nukes here - relying on a corrupt orange man acting like a russian asset, is a losing strategy. Even having another guy act and roleplay as president, won't really change this fundamental problem.
- CarlitosHighway 4mo ago
  [flagged]
  - pjc50 4mo ago
    We need less unhinged sephiroth-posting and more recognition that neither Japan nor China could be kept poor and backwards forever, since we forcibly opened their economies at gunpoint centuries ago.
  - worik 4mo ago
    > including non-Barbaric culture to Russia Golly. Europe got from the Islamic world in the crusades. Did it though? End barbarism?
- soco 4mo ago
  For what is worth, France offered to extend its nuclear umbrella to protect other European countries, offer accepted by 9 countries so far. Okay it's not permanent, doesn't necessary mean deployments in those countries, but still things are moving and the direction is obvious.
- tjpnz 4mo ago
  Europe also needs to be in a position where it can quickly deploy the anti-coercion instrument[0] should a foreign power interfere in elections or threaten territorial integrity. The last time it was on the table didn't give me confidence they could. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Coercion_Instrument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Coercion_Instrument
stefantalpalaru 4mo ago
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seydor 4mo ago
The interesting french delusion that donald is an outlier
thefz 4mo ago
With access to Internet in my late teens came the exposure to an intellectual, cultured leftist America I did not know existed. Now 20 years later, it really does not exist anymore. The US is a business,not a country, and it hates its own citizens.
- pjc50 4mo ago
  "X is a land of contrasts" is a cliche, but: America is a land of contrasts. It manages to have elements both of shining city on the hill and squalid banana republic (resource extraction economy with poor rule of law) adjacent to each other. But yes, the main natural predator of Americans is other Americans.
  - TalkingCodeMonk 4mo ago
    Those contrasts only exist among the general population, which Americas political class have not represented for generations. Can you give any examples of major corporations who do not have a verifiable history of corruption or anti-consumer/worker actions, not named costco? Can you name more than 10 politicians over the last 50 years who would be considered leftist in the rest of the Anglo world?
brightball 4mo ago
Not for this guy from Germany traveling across the US for the World Cup https://x.com/freddyla7?s=21 https://x.com/freddyla7?s=21
- pjc50 4mo ago
  In the UK this feels like the least popular world cup in years. Even after Russia and Qatar, it feels like more of a FIFA corruption circus.
  - brightball 4mo ago
    That’s echoed on X. UK folks grumbling while tourist from other countries are having a blast.
    - LightBug1 4mo ago
      Yes, I bet the Senegalese are loving it ... Face it, the Trump World Cup is going to be a shit show ... appropriate for what they've done to the US ... turned it into, and I quote the orange dildo himself, a shit hole.
      - brightball 4mo ago
        Seems like it's going okay... https://x.com/FreddyLA7/status/2064514871685710295?s=20 https://x.com/FreddyLA7/status/2064514871685710295?s=20
        LightBug1 4mo ago
        "McDonald’s earnings beat estimates as chain’s value push pays off" https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/11/mcdonalds-mcd-q4-2025-earnings.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/11/mcdonalds-mcd-q4-2025-earnin... Same energy ... intensely successful at low quality produce.
  - LightBug1 4mo ago
    Yeah, fck that piece of sh ... this particular World Cup has about the same amount of value to me as the FIFA Peace Prize.
Macha 4mo ago
I think its interesting that they Estonia has both the biggest swing against increasing defence spending (+23 to +1, from middle of the pack to second last), and the highest rate of blaming their own government for fuel prices. I wouldn’t have expected either result.
toxicunderGroov 4mo ago
[flagged]
- RGamma 4mo ago
  The deindustrialisation -> rising populist right pattern is kinda similar in Lil' US (Germany); it started later and moves quicker. And we can't get by on software subscriptions.
  - deaux 4mo ago
    What's particularly interesting is that the article shows how in Western Europe only Germany (and its brother Austria) has it's popular extreme right supporters be so pro-Russian. See in particular the chart about views on Ukraine. The majority of AfD and FPO voters see Ukraine as a "rival or adversary". Much more than RN, Reform UK, Vox, PVV, Chega or any of the Italian parties. And it's not even close. Germany and Austria are once again the most dangerous countries in all of Western Europe. We'll very soon see an AfD win, and from that moment Germany will once again be hostile to the rest of Europe. I already knew that Germany had learnt _less than_ nothing and had been saying this for years, though always being met by anger from Germans, regardless of their political allegiance. Until about a year ago, which is when at least some of them finally started admitting that indeed, they'd been living a lie.
    - RGamma 4mo ago
      I'm kinda relaxed w.r.t. actual hostilities coming from Germany/Austria. The large pensioner populations and - still - a sizable part of workers understand that burning the house down doesn't improve anything. But it could become a political shitshow like in the US. Certainly we're going to get more deregulation, hopefully of the right kind.
keiferski 4mo ago
Kind of a misleading title, but an interesting article. It’s about the perception that Europeans have of the likelihood that the US could be relied upon in the event that someone attacks their EU country. Some of these opinion polls are not particularly useful though, as for example Poland is frequently signing defense deals with the US. I’m not sure it’s all that relevant how much a western EU country feels about the prospect of being attacked, as I don’t see how Portugal or Spain or France are at much geopolitical risk compared to the eastern flank.
- mejutoco 4mo ago
  > It’s about the perception that Europeans have of the likelihood that the US could be relied upon in the event that someone attacks their EU country. Look at the Denmark graph (adversarial going up). I do not think in that case it is about "the likelihood that the US could be relied upon in the event that someone attacks" but about the US itself doing that.
  - haritha-j 4mo ago
    One could argue B implies A :p You can hardly expect the guy attacking you to have your back.
  - rob74 4mo ago
    It's also interesting that, while the "ally" curve is going down for all included countries, in some countries the "partner" (which is a weaker form of ally) curve is going up to partly compensate for that, while in others (mostly southern European, plus Switzerland and, of course, Denmark), it's also going down.
- flohofwoe 4mo ago
  > as for example Poland is frequently signing defense deals with the US The current US administration has made it very clear over and over again that deals, contracts and agreements don't mean shit to them.
kstenerud 4mo ago
> Worryingly, European populists are espousing more assertively anti-Ukrainian views. Viktor Orban focused his unsuccessful election campaign to remain Hungarian prime minister on that theme. Meanwhile ECFR’s polling shows that voters of the far-right Freedom Party in Austria (FPÖ), the AfD in Germany, two far-right parties in Poland, and the governing and populist Progressive Bulgaria all see Ukraine as chiefly a “rival” or “adversary”. Yes, because Russia's propaganda, espionage and corruption arm has been focusing on the far-right parties for the past two decades, breaking from their previous focus on the far left.
- flohofwoe 4mo ago
  Russia doesn't really differentiate between right and left when it comes to trying to destabilize Europe, they throw random shit against the wall and then focus on what sticks.
  - scihuber 4mo ago
    You’re absolutely right, but I’d also add that Russia’s cultural right and left are essentially just the right wing by U.S. or European standards.
    - snowpid 4mo ago
      I didnt know that communist are consired right wing now.
      - ndsipa_pomu 4mo ago
        You may be confusing the Soviet Union (disbanded in 1991) with Russia. The Soviet Union (USSR) was communist, but Russia existed before and after the Soviet Union. Russia was a monarchy before 1917 and became a semi-presidential republic (under Putin) after the fall of the Soviet Union. I would also describe modern Russia as an oligarchy and certainly seems to be far-right in terms of politics.
  - spwa4 4mo ago
comrade1234 4mo ago
My neighbors (Switzerland) sometimes joke about how we're all going to be fighting Putin (Russian army) in the streets someday.
scihuber 4mo ago
I hope the EU population understands that Russia, the US, and China are essentially in a kind of military alliance, and that Ukraine is literally the only one openly opposing this alliance. If the EU wants Ukraine to shield it from drones, send more air defense systems. If the EU wants to end the war, give Ukraine more long-range missiles. If you want Ukraine to hold on, then spend money on rebuilding its infrastructure. But as we see, the EU is not rushing to help. It still supplies goods to Russia or buys from it because it benefits the EU’s economy. Ukraine is the EU’s only ally that will protect you. What other military threats does Europe face besides Russia?
- Andrew_nenakhov 4mo ago
  > Russia, the US, and China are essentially in a kind of military alliance, and that Ukraine is literally the only one openly opposing this alliance. This is highly delusional. Don't you think that if the US and Russia were an alliance, the US would provide intelligence and communication to Russia, and not to Ukraine?
  - scihuber 4mo ago
    Because the U.S. has reached an agreement with China and Russia regarding the wars they will wage in the near future, so as not to interfere in each other’s affairs. I realize this is a stretch to call it an alliance, but it’s “kind of a military alliance.” This doesn’t mean the U.S., Russia, and China won’t keep each other in check; it’s simply a matter of spheres of influence.
- tim333 4mo ago
  I think it's more they lean towards the 'great powers' viewpoint that they are great and so have the right to bully smaller countries near them.
rsynnott 4mo ago
> Worryingly, European populists are espousing more assertively anti-Ukrainian views. Viktor Orban focused his unsuccessful election campaign to remain Hungarian prime minister on that theme. Meanwhile ECFR’s polling shows that voters of the far-right Freedom Party in Austria (FPÖ), the AfD in Germany, two far-right parties in Poland, and the governing and populist Progressive Bulgaria all see Ukraine as chiefly a “rival” or “adversary”. Of course, note that Orban _lost_. I suspect that the far-right's Putin-fetishism is a marketing mistake on their part; "Russia is good, actually" may resonate with their base but is a very hard sell to anyone else.
- Markoff 4mo ago
  > Of course, note that Orban _lost_. ...to a former member of his party Magyar, who was his colleague 2 years ago in 2024. It's amusing how some people see Magyar as some big change coming to Hungary after Orban. I don't think anyone genuinely likes Russia, it's more about stop pretending we suddenly like Ukraine, you know you can dislike them both at same time, right?
  - tim333 4mo ago
    Magyar is a big change. It's down to not being an Putin employee.
  - rsynnott 4mo ago
    He seems not to be a Russian asset. That’s a big change.
- satnhak 4mo ago
  "Russia is good, actually" is a hard sell to anyone who has been indoctrinated by a lifetime of Western Russophobia. Is I think what you meant.
  - pjc50 4mo ago
    The Russian public are victims of Putin just as much as the Ukranians. This is almost all on him and his party apparatus, just as it was under Stalin.
josefritzishere 4mo ago
I think we all know why. No need to say his name.
- cosmicgadget 4mo ago
  Ammon McNeff
tim333 4mo ago
As a European I'd say my sentiments are low more towards Trump and friends. I imagine things with the the US will go back to normal once he leaves office.
_DeadFred_ 4mo ago
It's sad. We begged Europe to contribute more for years, they chose to laugh and make fun of our healthcare compared to theirs instead. Didn't have to go this way. Euro's being euros they'll blame us for it all instead of being introspective. They love to gripe at us about how bad we are/they don't share values with us/etc so they'll just say todays poor US behavior proves their point (ignoring their previous behavior that contributed to things/lead here). They'll say we are corrupt/capitalist/evil yet they are the ones that refused to pay their share because they thought they didn't have to worry about the damage from their actions/choices. They undercut American businesses and legally tolerated practices like tax deductions for overseas bribes while the supposedly "evil capitalist" U.S. imposed criminal penalties for similar conduct. They negotiated reciprocal agreements, such as mutual recognition of aviation certifications, then failed to uphold them disadvantaging American companies. Europe legally tolerated/profited from corruption for decades. Europe refused to uphold parts of its own agreements. Europe laughed when the U.S. raised these complaints. I'm not sure why Europe chose this path. My best guess is that it did so because America tolerated that behavior for so long they assumed there would never be consequences. Maybe they thought the US was stuck with whatever Europe chose to do. It's like my British ex-friends that were surprised when I ended the relationship because all they wanted to do was gripe at me. I'm not spending money/hours cooking only to be treated miserably. If every interaction is just complaints and contempt while I'm expected to keep investing my time and effort eventually I gonna stop showing up. --reactionary thoughts from an unthoughtful American. They are more reactionary than productive, and I wish I had different ones.
duxup 4mo ago
Don’t even have to be non American to feel that way.
stasomatic 4mo ago
Who are these Europeans with these sentiments? I recently spent about 10 days in France and the UK, I saw no sentiment in gen pop, at least towards my own person. I also saw no AI anything anywhere, which was also very refreshing.

111 points by marcyb5st 4mo ago

Atlanticist polls are probably more interesting (if there even is such a thing) when considering which questions they didn't even ask, rather than the questions they asked confirming all the establishment positions anyway.

shevy-java 4mo ago
Would this make a difference though? The USA abandoned Europeans already before Trump. You only have to look at the polls. Thus, it makes sense to completely cut the ties, build up a nuclear arsenal and offset the mafia in Moscow. It makes no sense for Europeans to want to depend on the USA here; I have no idea who came up with that idea. Most likely the USA as it helped them project power. See how many bombing campaigns started from US bases in Germany, most famously from Ramstein.
- CarlitosHighway 4mo ago
  Of course. If the US builds military bases in your country, it profits THEM, not you.
  - lyu07282 4mo ago
    It's a protection racket, except now we get to cut our health care so we can own the knife on our throat.
- lyu07282 4mo ago
  Well the establishment position in the EU is that Trump is an outlier and that relations will normalize once he is removed from power, then business as usual can continue. Beyond that broad agreement with US - EU alignment on foreign policy (NATO, Ukraine, Israel, Iran, China) must continue even under Trump. Trump is even seen as an opportunity to convince Europeans to increase its own "NATO compatible" military spending. What I meant was it would be more interesting to see any opinions that conflict with that above establishment consensus. For example on negotiated settlement of the Ukraine war vs. continuing the forever war. Like where do Europeans disagree with the strategic interests of the US, do they really 100% align as this poll makes it appear? How is that possible?
  - knorker 4mo ago
    > the establishment position in the EU is that Trump is an outlier and that relations will normalize once he is removed from power Is it? This is not entirely clear. And if it seemed the case, it's increasingly not looking realistic. It won't fully go back to normal, now that it's clear that the US is one election away from not only backing away from commitments, but itself threatening invasion of supposed allies. A defense partner that sometimes announces that it's no longer an ally isn't really a defense partner, since The Enemy has the choice of when to attack and an understanding of game theory. And as a reliable trading partner the US apparently has very poor guardrails for suddenly not honoring deals and established norms. Turns out that the only checks&balances in the US political system is impeachment (which, as we know, is a political and not judicial process), and it's apparently impotent to protect against a rogue executive branch. "This era could see the alliance seriously weakened – or irreparably changed" from the EU Parliament report "The Near-term Future of the Transatlantic Relationship". There's also https://carnegieendowment.org/europe/strategic-europe/2026/05/europeans-are-quiet-quitting-the-united-states https://carnegieendowment.org/europe/strategic-europe/2026/0...
    - marcyb5st 4mo ago
      Yeah I agree. As the saying goes: trust is built in drops and lost in buckets. A lot of time needs to pass while the US behaves as a proper ally if they want to go back to the status quo. At least IMHO as this is how I feel as an EU citizen.
    - lyu07282 4mo ago
      I'm not saying that is realistic either, I just think EU leadership thinks it will return to "normalcy" after Trump is gone and they are acting accordingly. There has been no break from the US, they are as aligned on foreign policy as always, EU countries are acting to protect US interests, first and foremost, not to restore their own national sovereignty. The one part that is brilliant maneuvering now is the EU spending increases on their own militaries: You keep the dependency, US military bases and surveillance installations, including US nuclear weapons on your soil (or even more bases like in the case of Greenland), you align on every military intervention under the sun (including Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and the greater Israel project) and you get a perfect pretext to do large scale austerity? It is quite incredible they were able to sell all that with a straight face to the europeans. You know I would have asked the Europeans if they are okay with another migrant crisis as a result of another US intervention in the middle east, or if they think it's fair they have to spend on their own defense but don't get to seek diplomatic solutions to conflicts if that goes against US interests. The rules based order is dead, might is right has truly won and Europeans can lick the boot that crushes them is the truth. All of that to say there is a reason EU is falling victim to far-right fascist parties if that's the only alternative to this clusterfuck that is afforded to them.
somelamer567 4mo ago
Is there an establishment in the room with us right now? Let me know, because I want to make sure that I'm aligned with this mystical Western Atlantacist Anglo-Saxon (insert Russian propaganda snarl-word du jour) hive mind.
- lyu07282 4mo ago
  To understand what I'm talking about listen to the WEF speech by Canadian PM Mark Carney from a few months ago, https://youtu.be/izDAOvHz5Wc https://youtu.be/izDAOvHz5Wc

musikele 4mo ago

speaking about defending ourselves: there's a huge gap between "willing to defend" and "actually be able to defend" ourselves

CarlitosHighway 4mo ago
But we're now spending and working on this gap like crazy.
- 4gotunameagain 4mo ago
  And we will end up using those weapons against eachother, again. As if we haven't seen that film before. Or even worse, keep selling them to Israel as Germany is doing, because one genocide was not enough and two wrongs make a right.
  - x3ro 4mo ago
    I don't understand why this is being downvoted. It's not unreasonable to assume that increased militarization, coupled with increased nationalistic sentiment, could lead to inner-european conflicts escalating into wars. Sure, right now Russia is the enemy, but who knows what'll happen in ten years. And the military machinery is not just going to be scaled down immediately. If he's being downvoted for his "selling weapons to Israel" comment, I just want to highlight that even a majority of Germans is against it, with 80% not wanting to send weapons [1]. Of course there are different polls, and others find that "only" 30% say "stop them", plus another 43% saying "limit them [2]. Either way, only a small minority is pro "send all the weapons". [1]: https://www.plan.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/detail/80-prozent-der-deutschen-fordern-einen-stopp-der-waffenlieferungen-an-israel.html https://www.plan.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/detail/80-proz... [2]: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1615302/umfrage/umfrage-zu-deutschen-waffenexporte-nach-israel/ https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1615302/umfra...
    - chatmasta 4mo ago
      Follow the Yugoslavia model and ship soldiers from each country to live and work with each other in their first years in military service. Then again… Yugoslavia maybe not the best example here…

aaron695 4mo ago

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shevy-java 4mo ago

> Europeans embrace self-reliance and are clear-eyed about Donald Trump—but do not expect a permanent break from the US. That's a wrong analysis IMO. I think NATO as it was is completely dead. Europeans need a nuclear arsenal too (french and UK nukes are for those two countries only; that does not protect several hundred millions people). Russia is threatening escalation every day, including using nukes. Europeans need their own nukes here - relying on a corrupt orange man acting like a russian asset, is a losing strategy. Even having another guy act and roleplay as president, won't really change this fundamental problem.

CarlitosHighway 4mo ago
[flagged]
- pjc50 4mo ago
  We need less unhinged sephiroth-posting and more recognition that neither Japan nor China could be kept poor and backwards forever, since we forcibly opened their economies at gunpoint centuries ago.
- worik 4mo ago
  > including non-Barbaric culture to Russia Golly. Europe got from the Islamic world in the crusades. Did it though? End barbarism?
soco 4mo ago
For what is worth, France offered to extend its nuclear umbrella to protect other European countries, offer accepted by 9 countries so far. Okay it's not permanent, doesn't necessary mean deployments in those countries, but still things are moving and the direction is obvious.
tjpnz 4mo ago
Europe also needs to be in a position where it can quickly deploy the anti-coercion instrument[0] should a foreign power interfere in elections or threaten territorial integrity. The last time it was on the table didn't give me confidence they could. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Coercion_Instrument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Coercion_Instrument

stefantalpalaru 4mo ago

[dead]

seydor 4mo ago

The interesting french delusion that donald is an outlier

thefz 4mo ago

With access to Internet in my late teens came the exposure to an intellectual, cultured leftist America I did not know existed. Now 20 years later, it really does not exist anymore. The US is a business,not a country, and it hates its own citizens.

pjc50 4mo ago
"X is a land of contrasts" is a cliche, but: America is a land of contrasts. It manages to have elements both of shining city on the hill and squalid banana republic (resource extraction economy with poor rule of law) adjacent to each other. But yes, the main natural predator of Americans is other Americans.
- TalkingCodeMonk 4mo ago
  Those contrasts only exist among the general population, which Americas political class have not represented for generations. Can you give any examples of major corporations who do not have a verifiable history of corruption or anti-consumer/worker actions, not named costco? Can you name more than 10 politicians over the last 50 years who would be considered leftist in the rest of the Anglo world?

brightball 4mo ago

Not for this guy from Germany traveling across the US for the World Cup https://x.com/freddyla7?s=21 https://x.com/freddyla7?s=21

pjc50 4mo ago
In the UK this feels like the least popular world cup in years. Even after Russia and Qatar, it feels like more of a FIFA corruption circus.
- brightball 4mo ago
  That’s echoed on X. UK folks grumbling while tourist from other countries are having a blast.
  - LightBug1 4mo ago
    Yes, I bet the Senegalese are loving it ... Face it, the Trump World Cup is going to be a shit show ... appropriate for what they've done to the US ... turned it into, and I quote the orange dildo himself, a shit hole.
    - brightball 4mo ago
      Seems like it's going okay... https://x.com/FreddyLA7/status/2064514871685710295?s=20 https://x.com/FreddyLA7/status/2064514871685710295?s=20
      - LightBug1 4mo ago
        "McDonald’s earnings beat estimates as chain’s value push pays off" https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/11/mcdonalds-mcd-q4-2025-earnings.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/11/mcdonalds-mcd-q4-2025-earnin... Same energy ... intensely successful at low quality produce.
- LightBug1 4mo ago
  Yeah, fck that piece of sh ... this particular World Cup has about the same amount of value to me as the FIFA Peace Prize.

Macha 4mo ago

I think its interesting that they Estonia has both the biggest swing against increasing defence spending (+23 to +1, from middle of the pack to second last), and the highest rate of blaming their own government for fuel prices. I wouldn’t have expected either result.

toxicunderGroov 4mo ago

[flagged]

RGamma 4mo ago
The deindustrialisation -> rising populist right pattern is kinda similar in Lil' US (Germany); it started later and moves quicker. And we can't get by on software subscriptions.
- deaux 4mo ago
  What's particularly interesting is that the article shows how in Western Europe only Germany (and its brother Austria) has it's popular extreme right supporters be so pro-Russian. See in particular the chart about views on Ukraine. The majority of AfD and FPO voters see Ukraine as a "rival or adversary". Much more than RN, Reform UK, Vox, PVV, Chega or any of the Italian parties. And it's not even close. Germany and Austria are once again the most dangerous countries in all of Western Europe. We'll very soon see an AfD win, and from that moment Germany will once again be hostile to the rest of Europe. I already knew that Germany had learnt _less than_ nothing and had been saying this for years, though always being met by anger from Germans, regardless of their political allegiance. Until about a year ago, which is when at least some of them finally started admitting that indeed, they'd been living a lie.
  - RGamma 4mo ago
    I'm kinda relaxed w.r.t. actual hostilities coming from Germany/Austria. The large pensioner populations and - still - a sizable part of workers understand that burning the house down doesn't improve anything. But it could become a political shitshow like in the US. Certainly we're going to get more deregulation, hopefully of the right kind.

keiferski 4mo ago

Kind of a misleading title, but an interesting article. It’s about the perception that Europeans have of the likelihood that the US could be relied upon in the event that someone attacks their EU country. Some of these opinion polls are not particularly useful though, as for example Poland is frequently signing defense deals with the US. I’m not sure it’s all that relevant how much a western EU country feels about the prospect of being attacked, as I don’t see how Portugal or Spain or France are at much geopolitical risk compared to the eastern flank.

mejutoco 4mo ago
> It’s about the perception that Europeans have of the likelihood that the US could be relied upon in the event that someone attacks their EU country. Look at the Denmark graph (adversarial going up). I do not think in that case it is about "the likelihood that the US could be relied upon in the event that someone attacks" but about the US itself doing that.
- haritha-j 4mo ago
  One could argue B implies A :p You can hardly expect the guy attacking you to have your back.
- rob74 4mo ago
  It's also interesting that, while the "ally" curve is going down for all included countries, in some countries the "partner" (which is a weaker form of ally) curve is going up to partly compensate for that, while in others (mostly southern European, plus Switzerland and, of course, Denmark), it's also going down.
flohofwoe 4mo ago
> as for example Poland is frequently signing defense deals with the US The current US administration has made it very clear over and over again that deals, contracts and agreements don't mean shit to them.

kstenerud 4mo ago

> Worryingly, European populists are espousing more assertively anti-Ukrainian views. Viktor Orban focused his unsuccessful election campaign to remain Hungarian prime minister on that theme. Meanwhile ECFR’s polling shows that voters of the far-right Freedom Party in Austria (FPÖ), the AfD in Germany, two far-right parties in Poland, and the governing and populist Progressive Bulgaria all see Ukraine as chiefly a “rival” or “adversary”. Yes, because Russia's propaganda, espionage and corruption arm has been focusing on the far-right parties for the past two decades, breaking from their previous focus on the far left.

flohofwoe 4mo ago
Russia doesn't really differentiate between right and left when it comes to trying to destabilize Europe, they throw random shit against the wall and then focus on what sticks.
- scihuber 4mo ago
  You’re absolutely right, but I’d also add that Russia’s cultural right and left are essentially just the right wing by U.S. or European standards.
  - snowpid 4mo ago
    I didnt know that communist are consired right wing now.
    - ndsipa_pomu 4mo ago
      You may be confusing the Soviet Union (disbanded in 1991) with Russia. The Soviet Union (USSR) was communist, but Russia existed before and after the Soviet Union. Russia was a monarchy before 1917 and became a semi-presidential republic (under Putin) after the fall of the Soviet Union. I would also describe modern Russia as an oligarchy and certainly seems to be far-right in terms of politics.
- spwa4 4mo ago

comrade1234 4mo ago

My neighbors (Switzerland) sometimes joke about how we're all going to be fighting Putin (Russian army) in the streets someday.

scihuber 4mo ago

I hope the EU population understands that Russia, the US, and China are essentially in a kind of military alliance, and that Ukraine is literally the only one openly opposing this alliance. If the EU wants Ukraine to shield it from drones, send more air defense systems. If the EU wants to end the war, give Ukraine more long-range missiles. If you want Ukraine to hold on, then spend money on rebuilding its infrastructure. But as we see, the EU is not rushing to help. It still supplies goods to Russia or buys from it because it benefits the EU’s economy. Ukraine is the EU’s only ally that will protect you. What other military threats does Europe face besides Russia?

Andrew_nenakhov 4mo ago
> Russia, the US, and China are essentially in a kind of military alliance, and that Ukraine is literally the only one openly opposing this alliance. This is highly delusional. Don't you think that if the US and Russia were an alliance, the US would provide intelligence and communication to Russia, and not to Ukraine?
- scihuber 4mo ago
  Because the U.S. has reached an agreement with China and Russia regarding the wars they will wage in the near future, so as not to interfere in each other’s affairs. I realize this is a stretch to call it an alliance, but it’s “kind of a military alliance.” This doesn’t mean the U.S., Russia, and China won’t keep each other in check; it’s simply a matter of spheres of influence.
tim333 4mo ago
I think it's more they lean towards the 'great powers' viewpoint that they are great and so have the right to bully smaller countries near them.

rsynnott 4mo ago

> Worryingly, European populists are espousing more assertively anti-Ukrainian views. Viktor Orban focused his unsuccessful election campaign to remain Hungarian prime minister on that theme. Meanwhile ECFR’s polling shows that voters of the far-right Freedom Party in Austria (FPÖ), the AfD in Germany, two far-right parties in Poland, and the governing and populist Progressive Bulgaria all see Ukraine as chiefly a “rival” or “adversary”. Of course, note that Orban _lost_. I suspect that the far-right's Putin-fetishism is a marketing mistake on their part; "Russia is good, actually" may resonate with their base but is a very hard sell to anyone else.

Markoff 4mo ago
> Of course, note that Orban _lost_. ...to a former member of his party Magyar, who was his colleague 2 years ago in 2024. It's amusing how some people see Magyar as some big change coming to Hungary after Orban. I don't think anyone genuinely likes Russia, it's more about stop pretending we suddenly like Ukraine, you know you can dislike them both at same time, right?
- tim333 4mo ago
  Magyar is a big change. It's down to not being an Putin employee.
- rsynnott 4mo ago
  He seems not to be a Russian asset. That’s a big change.
satnhak 4mo ago
"Russia is good, actually" is a hard sell to anyone who has been indoctrinated by a lifetime of Western Russophobia. Is I think what you meant.
- pjc50 4mo ago
  The Russian public are victims of Putin just as much as the Ukranians. This is almost all on him and his party apparatus, just as it was under Stalin.

josefritzishere 4mo ago

I think we all know why. No need to say his name.

cosmicgadget 4mo ago
Ammon McNeff

tim333 4mo ago

As a European I'd say my sentiments are low more towards Trump and friends. I imagine things with the the US will go back to normal once he leaves office.

_DeadFred_ 4mo ago

It's sad. We begged Europe to contribute more for years, they chose to laugh and make fun of our healthcare compared to theirs instead. Didn't have to go this way. Euro's being euros they'll blame us for it all instead of being introspective. They love to gripe at us about how bad we are/they don't share values with us/etc so they'll just say todays poor US behavior proves their point (ignoring their previous behavior that contributed to things/lead here). They'll say we are corrupt/capitalist/evil yet they are the ones that refused to pay their share because they thought they didn't have to worry about the damage from their actions/choices. They undercut American businesses and legally tolerated practices like tax deductions for overseas bribes while the supposedly "evil capitalist" U.S. imposed criminal penalties for similar conduct. They negotiated reciprocal agreements, such as mutual recognition of aviation certifications, then failed to uphold them disadvantaging American companies. Europe legally tolerated/profited from corruption for decades. Europe refused to uphold parts of its own agreements. Europe laughed when the U.S. raised these complaints. I'm not sure why Europe chose this path. My best guess is that it did so because America tolerated that behavior for so long they assumed there would never be consequences. Maybe they thought the US was stuck with whatever Europe chose to do. It's like my British ex-friends that were surprised when I ended the relationship because all they wanted to do was gripe at me. I'm not spending money/hours cooking only to be treated miserably. If every interaction is just complaints and contempt while I'm expected to keep investing my time and effort eventually I gonna stop showing up. --reactionary thoughts from an unthoughtful American. They are more reactionary than productive, and I wish I had different ones.

duxup 4mo ago

Don’t even have to be non American to feel that way.

stasomatic 4mo ago

Who are these Europeans with these sentiments? I recently spent about 10 days in France and the UK, I saw no sentiment in gen pop, at least towards my own person. I also saw no AI anything anywhere, which was also very refreshing.