Célia Belin and Pawel Zerka, at the European Council on Foreign Relations, write:
Across Europe, perceptions of the superpower have further deteriorated since November 2024, when Trump was re-elected. The most-shared perspective in each country, even in traditionally NATO-loving Denmark, Poland and the UK, is that the US is only a “necessary partner” rather than “an ally that shares our interests and values”. That puts it roughly on a par with India, Turkey or even China. In some countries—including Bulgaria, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland—a quarter or more of the respondents consider the US as a rival or even an adversary.
Only in some countries—Hungary, Poland and the UK—does this issue strongly divide the public. Three Trumpist parties in those places—Fidesz, Law and Justice (PiS) and Reform UK—are Europe’s main outliers. Many of their voters still see the US as the EU’s (or, in the UK’s case, “their country’s”) ally. But this perspective is not widely shared by supporters of other European new-right parties, including the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Brothers of Italy (FdI) and the National Rally (RN) in France. Views on the US have hardly shifted in those three electorates, despite an eventful year and MAGA’s vocal ambitions to bring them closer to its orbit. Moreover, some such parties’ voters (for example, those of the AfD or FdI) have become more critical of what Trump means for American voters than they were a year ago.
