A majority of people in Western Europe want the Democrat challenger Joe Biden to win November’s U.S. presidential election, according to a recent poll by the organization YouGov, which questioned tens of thousands of people about the upcoming November 3 vote.
The polls were conducted in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Sweden. Danes showed the strongest support for Joe Biden, with 80% hoping for a Democrat victory, while 6% said they wanted Donald Trump to win a second term.
Italy showed the highest level of support for Trump, with 20% hoping for a Republican victory. But more than half of Italians polled — 58% — said they wanted Biden to win.
In Britain — traditionally one of the United States’ strongest transatlantic allies — 61% of people said they wanted Biden to win, versus 13% for Trump. In France, the figures were 64% for Biden and 14% for Trump, while 71% of Germans wanted the Democrat to win, against 11% for Trump.
Most Berlin residents who spoke to VOA said they hoped for a change of leader in the White House.
“Personally, I hope that Biden will be elected, even though it doesn’t directly affect me and I don’t live there,” Lukas Andereck told VOA.
Others criticized the tone of the campaigns.
“It’s no longer about an exchange of arguments, instead everyone has their own camp and they are so far apart that it makes me scared,” said Berlin resident Andreas Eberlein.
In Paris, many residents said they didn’t know much about the Democrat challenger.
“I would like Trump to lose and I’m not sure he’s going to lose, because he has many people behind him. I don’t know much about Biden,” Paris resident Sophie Chiles said.
Government employee Pierre Le Goff agreed: “I don’t know if President Biden would be a better president. But I hope that if we have a change in the administration we can renew a normal relationship with the U.S.,” he told VOA.
In Barcelona, Spain, many people expected the election result to impact their lives.
“We have seen it with Trump with his trade war with China, his trade war with Europe, and in the end this affects all of Europe and all of Asia,” said Barcelona resident Sergi, who did not want to give his full name.
In eastern Europe there is greater support for Donald Trump.
A 2019 Pew Research poll showed that more than half of Polish people had a favorable opinion of the president, the highest in Europe. Trump’s decision to boost U.S. troop numbers in Poland this year has proved popular.
Trump has also received praise in Kosovo for his efforts towards reconciliation between Pristina and Belgrade. One Kosovar citizen even paid for a billboard on Kosovo’s airport highway wishing Donald Trump a swift recovery from the coronavirus.
“The reason I paid for the giant billboard to President Trump was to honor the American people, to honor the American president,” said Naim Murseli, an ethnic Kosovar who lives in Sweden.
“The Albanians are the most pro-American people in the world and when the news came that President Trump had been infected by the coronavirus, I felt that I wanted to do something in the name of all pro-American Albanians, so I decided to wish him a swift recovery and full health and blessing to the American people and to our both countries,” Murseli told the Associated Press news agency earlier this month.
Many Europeans believe the U.S. election result will have a big impact on their side of the Atlantic and there is growing interest as the campaigns heat up ahead of the November 3 vote.
