Europe and US Closer but Poles Don't Like America Anymore

Americans and Europeans again discovered that they need each other, reveals the recent survey conducted by the German Marshall Fund. But Poles completely lack heart for this warming up.

Even one year ago, Americans perceived relations between the U.S. and Asiatic countries, such as China, Japan and South Korea, as more significant than their ties with the European Union. As a matter of fact, that opinion was shared by the politicians and experts in Washington.

In November 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote for Foreign Policy that the future of the U.S. (and the world) will depend on the Pacific. Now, unexpectedly, we learn from the annual transatlantic survey by GMF that Americans have apparently changed their minds, as relations with the EU appear to them to be of greatest importance, and predominantly so. Those feelings are congruent in 55 percent of the respondents, which is 17 percent more than one year ago.

A similar pattern may be observed across the ocean. However, Europeans always thought that America mattered to them more than Asia. Now, they are even more convinced about that — with an additional 9 percent — than a year ago.

Even the authors of the survey cannot explain this unexpected renaissance of American affection toward Europe. It might be — but only hypothetically — that owing to the financial crisis, they are shown more of the Old Continent on TV and consequently understand that our economies are interdependent, explains Hamutal Bernstein of the German Marshall Fund.

Indeed, during the worst months, when they heard from Europe about the possible bankruptcy of Greece, Spain and Italy, some of the American experts warned that the euro’s downfall could have finished the U.S. economy and Barack Obama, in the upcoming presidential election, as well. Another explanation is that the American public appreciated the role of the EU, although it had less enthusiasm for its leadership in the world — 63 percent of Americans considered it desirable, which is 9 percent less than in 2011. (Of course, it envisioned Europe as one of the leaders, with the first fiddles being played by itself.)

When it comes to Europeans, 52 percent think that America should fulfill a supreme role in the world. And that statistic has not changed since the election of Obama, when the number rose by a dozen or so.

All this, except for Poles, who are losing their enthusiasm for America at a high rate. Only 38 percent of them expect the U.S. to take on global leadership, 11 percent less than a year ago. On the other hand, the number of those who in 2011 thought that the American lead was “undesirable” rose by as much as 13 percent, and now equals 43 percent. Such a state of affairs is difficult to explain. Obama resigned from the plan of building the anti-missile shield, whose crucial elements were to be situated in Poland, as proposed by George W. Bush. He did so with the intent to win the favor of Vladimir Putin and “restart” bilateral relations with Russia. Recently, the American president offended many Poles by using the term “Polish death camps during the Second World War” (instead of “Nazi concentration camps in Poland,” which was subsequently belittled as a minor slip of the tongue by Obama’s staff.

If the American presidential election took place in Europe, Barack Obama could get 75 percent of the vote, whereas Mitt Romney, only 8 percent. Most Europeans still love Obama, while Romney has either a bad opinion or none (meaning that he is unknown). But the Republican candidate would have the best result in Poland — 16 percent, against the 35 percent of Obama.

Perhaps the most surprising fact is that the Polish resistance to Obama matches its approach toward NATO. Fifty-eight percent of Europeans still consider the Alliance as “crucial to their security.” That includes 71 percent of the English and Dutch, but only 45 percent of the Polish, which is a 6 percent drop.

Out of all 12 EU nations asked by the German Marshall Fund, Poles are the most critical of the war in Iraq, and the strongest in their demand to withdraw Western troops from Afghanistan. Sixty-two percent of them expect such a course of action to be taken, with the French at 61 percent, British at 51 percent and Americans at 44 percent.

After two recent wars in which we [Poles] took part, we generally disapprove of military intervention in defense of nations that are persecuted by their dictators. It is accepted by 61 percent of Americans, and 67 percent of Europeans overall, but only by 41 percent of the Poles.

As far as discrepancies are concerned, America and Europe are traditionally divided over the issue of Israel. Fifty-nine percent of U.S. citizens perceive Israel in a positive way, whereas 32 percent of them, negatively. In Europe, it goes the other way around: 34 percent of respondents have a good opinion of Israel and 52 percent a bad one. Again, Poland stands out from the crowd, but in this case in that 32 percent would not say anything about the country, while 30 percent of them talked positively about the nation and 38 percent negatively.