Survey

The image of Europe in Greece today: commentary by Vasiliki Georgiadou

The professor of Political Science at Panteion University, Vasiliki Georgiadou, was one of the speakers who honored with their presence at the discussion panel of the research of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation on the Image of Europe in Greece today, which took place in November 2022.

Having known the Foundation for decades, the academic did not fail to mention past collaborations with the Foundation in her speech and to share her delight for being invited to comment on the findings of the data-rich new poll.

Her analysis focused on the finding of citizens' overall dichotomy about the EU, highlighting that the onset of the crisis appeared to signal a decline in positive and an increase in negative views. From 2015, as she underlined, an upward trend started again, but it broke again after 2021.

At another point in her speech, Mrs. Georgiadou also referred to the major issue of political trust in institutions, expressing her shock, especially at the downward trend observed in the confidence index concerning European Parliament, "the institution that has the pre-eminent popular legitimacy».

Despite the dominance of negative opinions about the EU, more than half of citizens seem to express expectations for more deepening and common policies, a message of optimism, she said, for our European identity. She also described as optimistic the messages that almost ¾ of Greek citizens think that it is better for Greece to remain both within the EU and within the Eurozone.

Finally, she did not fail to highlight the interaction of demographic characteristics with the way opinions are distributed and the various aspects of the EU are treated, with particular reference to the gap recorded between the Left and Right.

In the overall assessment of the research and the demographic data, Mrs. Georgiadou noted that there is an interesting "convergence of purely centrist and center-right forces in terms of their perceptions on the issues at issue" while on the other hand, there is "an intersection between center-right and right-wing or extreme right positions".