Just half of Europeans aged 16-26 believe democracy is the best form of government. The figure was revealed in a survey that polled 6,000 young Europeans in seven countries.
Image: picture-alliance/Zuma Press/S. Babbar
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The results of the YouGov study, commissioned by the TUI Foundation and released Thursday, show that respondents from Germany and Greece were most in favor of democracy (62 and 66 percent), while France, Italy and Poland were the least convinced of its effectiveness (42, 45 and 42 percent).
The study noted that the latter three countries had experienced a growth in populist movements. France sees a runoff vote this weekend to decide if Marine Le Pen, a far-right candidate claiming she will protect France's national identity, will be its next president. However, polls predict Emmanuel Macron, a centrist candidate, is likely to claim victory.
The YouGov study, which was conducted between February 16 and March 3, surveyed 6,000 people aged 16-26 from Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, and Spain.
Distanced from the EU
Another finding from the study was that young people see the European Union more as an economic alliance (76 percent) than a grouping of nations with common cultural values (30 percent).
"A Europe whose value is seen, above all, in the advantages of the common market threatens to become interchangeable and arbitrary," said Thomas Ellerbeck, chair of the board of trustees at the TUI Foundation, in a statement on the foundation's website. "It is therefore important to discuss the shared values of Europe. Here all social actors are required, not just politicians."
In the seven countries polled, an average of one in five respondents said they were in favor of their country leaving the EU. This figure was highest in Greece (31 percent for leaving the EU) and lowest in Germany and Spain, where 12 percent would vote for an EU exit.
Greek respondents were most in favor of the EU returning some power to national governments, with 60 percent indicating they supported this idea. The average of those polled was 38 percent, while only 22 percent of Germans indicated they would want the EU to give up some power to national governments.
Facets of ultranationalism in Central Europe
Artist and filmmaker Tomáš Rafa series "New Nationalism" about the rise of extremist tendencies in Europe is currently on display in New York. Jan Tomes talked to him about his project.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Cleaning up
Tomáš Rafa began his project "New Nationalism" in 2009 when segregation walls were built in cities in eastern Slovakia. Three years later, he got a permission to organize an event, during which Romani kids from Ostrovany painted the 120-meter-long and 3-meter-high wall that, in the words of the local mayor, prevents goods from being stolen by the people from the settlement.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Tear down the wall
"I wanted to show that the adaptation process needs much more attention and that problems can’t be solved by building a wall," said Rafa about his wall-painting project which also took him to Sečovce, Slovakia. The settlement, pictured here, has been described as the place with the worst social conditions among all Romani villages in Slovakia by the local authorities.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Rise of the far-right
In 2015, a selfie of Lutz Bachmann, the founder of the German anti-Islamic and nationalistic organization PEGIDA, posing as an Adolf Hitler lookalike, went viral in the the German press. This picture was taken by Rafa one year earlier in Dresden, both Pegida’s and Bachmann’s hometown, during a march of far-right extremists.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Igniting the fire
The decision by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to abandon ties with the European Union in favor of Russia triggered a series of demonstrations that eventually evolved into the EuroMaidan protests in early 2014. Rafa went to Ukraine again a few months later, this time to capture the siege of Sloviansk in the Donetsk region.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Standing against facism
"In Germany and Austria, anti-fascist protests have a long tradition. People use them as the last, physical tool of resistance," says Rafa. This picture captures anti-fascist protests against the right-wing populist and national conservative political party FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria), which has strong ties to Germany’s AfD and Marine Le Pen’s National Front.
Image: Tomas Rafa
March to the gallows
Left-wing and right-wing protesters clashed in Prague on June 1, 2015. Some anti-Islamic sympathizers came to the demonstration carrying gallows and were allowed to march with them through the city center. The police failed to intervene and was heavily criticized by the public, politicians and media. To this day no one has been charged.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Protecting their freedom
Thousands of people gathered in Budapest recently to protest against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s nationalist policies after he pushed through legislation that may result in shutting down the Central European University founded by US-Hungarian investor George Soros who is one of Orban's main opponents.
Image: Tomas Rafa
Smoke screen
Thousands of Poles celebrated the 78th anniversary of the establishment of the Second Polish Republic with red flares and national flags, but several far-right groups used the occasion to protest against globalization, refugees, Islam, and the European Union.
