Ukraine: Eurobarometer, on ‘La Ragione’ the analysis by Ricolfi and the Hume Foundation

Today the usual weekly column of the opinion newspaper La Ragione – leAli alla liberty edited by Professor Luca Ricolfi and Fondazione Hume dedicated to the quantitative analysis of topical issues talks about Eurobarometer. The Eurobarometer is a very useful tool that allows you to monitor the opinion of European citizens on the work of the European Union and on topical issues. We used the latest survey (April 2022) to investigate the mood of the population in relation to the current conflict in Ukraine. We have selected a subset of countries that includes the major European states (Germany, Spain, France and Italy) and Poland, the largest of the countries bordering Ukraine. As shown by the graphs accompanying the texts, it is Poland that registers the highest number of consensus regarding the economic sanctions imposed on Russia. In fact, more than 9 out of 10 Poles (91%) agree with the adoption of these measures. This percentage drops in Spain (83.7%) and Germany (82.2%); even more in France (80.8%) and Italy (76.8%). In the second graph it can be seen that the Eurobarometer survey shows that our population is on average very apprehensive about the conflict. In fact, 44.8% of our citizens describe themselves as “very worried”: a figure that is even higher than that of Poland (bordering Ukraine), which stands at around 44%, and of Germany, which stops at 41.7 %. The Spanish and French citizens, on the other hand, seem to be more serene about the ongoing war, describing themselves as “very worried” in 27.2% and 23.4% of cases respectively. The last dimension taken into consideration is that of trust that citizens place in information from the press. Italy stands out above other countries due to the very low level of trust expressed by its citizens. 47.2% of those interviewed report that they “tend not to trust” or “do not trust at all” the story that journalists make of the war in progress. The level of distrust is also high in Spain (37.9%) and France (36.5%), while Germany (33.7%) and Poland (28%) show slightly more reassuring values. by Luca Ricolfi and Fondazione Hume correlated with the comment by the editorial staff of La Ragione are available in today’s issue of the newspaper and forever free of charge on the app and website www.laragione.eu.