ANGELA MERKEL AT THE HEAD OF THE EU? This is what European citizens think

Foto: Tanjug/AP

Merkel is currently visiting Macron, for the last time before the upcoming German federal election scheduled for 26 September 2021.

As previously announced, the key topics of their working dinner in the Élysée Palace incluse the situation in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the Western military troops, the situation in Africa’s Sahel region, since both of these countries are participating in military missions there and the upcoming French presidential elections in May 2022, Deutsche Welle reports. 

Ahead of this meeting, ECFR from Brussels published the results of their survey and they show that 41 per cent of all respondents would vote for Angela Merkel as the "EU president" - if such position existed.

As the results state, it seems that EU citizens prefer Angela Merkel's approach to politics over Emmanuel Macron's. 

- With her technocratic leadership style, Merkel appears to have won the trust of Europeans much more than Macron has with his visionary speeches - ECFR concludes. 

Merkel was chosen over Macron in all 12 participating countries, with Macron landing only 14 per cent of the total votes. 

Merkel is especially popular in the Netherlands

In France, 32 per cent of the respondents would vote for the German candidate and only 20 per cent for their own head of state.  As Deutsche Welle says, it is worth noting that in Hungary Macron received a total of 24 per cent of votes, more than in his own country. 

Merkel is especially popular in the Netherlands, as some 58 percent of Dutch respondents voted for her compared to Macron's 6 percent.  In Austria, 34 per cent of respondents would choose Merkel, whereas 14 per cent would cast their vote in favour of Macron.  The remaining respondents were either indecisive or unwilling to vote. 

The authors of this study conclude that the "fact that Merkel is so much more popular than Macron in not only the Netherlands and Spain but also Portugal and Denmark shows how much she can be an integrating force in different corners of the EU". 

- The Nordic ‘frugal’ states and the countries of the EU’s south often have diametrically opposed positions on many aspects of European policy, especially economic and financial matters. Since support for Merkel is high in both camps, she appears to have succeeded in conveying the message that she is committed to addressing the concerns of both of them, positioning Germany as a unifying power - states ECFR. 

According to this Brussels research centre, a total of 16,267 respondents from 12 EU countries were surveyed - Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria.