Nearly half of Europeans have a favorable opinion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but feelings vary widely across member states.
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That is one of the main conclusions of an exclusive Euronews poll conducted by Ipsos with almost 26,000 respondents across 18 Member States ahead of the European Parliament elections taking place from 6-9 June.
The first-of-its-kind survey found that 47% of Europeans have a “favorable” opinion of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and 32% have an “unfavorable” opinion, while 21% said they “don’t know enough” about the president who has made headlines for the past two years and toured the continent extensively on behalf of his war-torn country.
This makes Zelensky the most favorable of the eight European leaders surveyed by Ipsos, but also the most polarizing, with approval ratings fluctuating the most.
In the Nordic region and the Iberian Peninsula, President Zelenskyy receives the highest “positive” ratings: 81% in Finland, 74% in Sweden, 72% in Denmark and Portugal, and 64% in Spain.
In contrast, more than half of respondents in Hungary (60%), Greece (57%) and Bulgaria (56%) have a “negative” opinion of the Ukrainian president.
Other countries where negative judgements outweighed positive judgements were Slovakia (50% vs. 26%), Austria (47% vs. 33%), Italy (41% vs. 32%) and the Czech Republic (37% vs. 36%).
This situation contrasts with official government statements. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala have both been vocal supporters of Ukraine and have defended their sanctions regimes against Russia. The Czech Republic recently launched a program to rapidly procure 800,000 rounds of ammunition for Kiev.
Another notable example is Germany, the EU’s largest military donor. Polls show Germans are mixed, with 41% saying they have a positive view of Zelensky, and 36% saying they have a negative view.
In Romania, where farmers have complained about low-cost, duty-free grain imports from Ukraine, the divide is similarly stark, with 49% saying “positively” and 40% saying “negatively.” Poland, where the same issue has seen more violent protests, is still more in the “positive” (57%) than “negative” (24%) camp.
Looking at voting intentions ahead of the June elections, Zelensky received the most points from supporters of the main pro-European parties – the European People’s Party (61%), the Social Democrats (62%), the liberal Renew Europe (59%) and the Greens (63%). Among Meloni and Fiala’s far-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) party, the “positive” share dropped to 47%.
The left, which broke with the mainstream on the issue of ammunition supplies, was split down the middle with 40% saying “positive” and 42% saying “negative.”
Among supporters of the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) party, negative opinions (53%) overwhelmingly outnumber positive opinions (26%).
Overall, Zelenskyy has been a love-it-or-hate-it figure, eliciting strong reactions from both sides of the debate. The percentage of people who “don’t know enough” is low across all countries, genders, age groups, professions and political parties.
From Macron to Putin
The exclusive Euronews/Ipsos poll also offers insight into how Europeans feel about the continent’s other prominent leaders.
French President Emmanuel Macron came in second on the popularity rankings, with 41% of respondents saying they had a “favorable” opinion of him, and 34% saying “unfavorable.” As expected, it was the French public who were the harshest critics, with a staggering 62% choosing the “negative” position and just 28% saying “positive.”
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Macron is popular with majorities in Romania (57%), Greece (55%), Germany (53%), Denmark (52%) and the Netherlands (50%).
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has inspired even greater apathy: 38% of respondents said they “don’t know enough” about the leader of the EU’s largest economy, 29% had a “positive” opinion and 33% expressed a “negative” view.
Four countries stand out in terms of dislike towards 65-year-old socialists: Germany (61% have a “negative” opinion), Austria (47%), Greece (45%) and Poland (39%).
Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Spain’s Pedro Sánchez and Poland’s Donald Tusk are too protected from scorn by the “I don’t know enough” option (43%, 58% and 50% respectively). As a result, none of the three can be said to be particularly liked or disliked. Outside of Italy, the only country where Meloni is disliked is Spain, where 44% have a “negative” opinion.
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Interestingly, Romanian participants warmly support Meloni (54%), Sanchez (49%) and Tusk (53%), despite the fact that they come from very different backgrounds.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is a different story: 48% of respondents have a “negative” opinion of the man who promotes “illiberal democracy,” has repeatedly obstructed EU decision-making, and has pursued an overtly pro-Russian foreign policy. Only 15% have a “positive” assessment. The rest (37%) say they “don’t know enough about him.”
Sweden (65%) and Finland (64%), whose NATO membership application was delayed in part due to Prime Minister Orbán’s stalling tactics, have the highest levels of disapproval, followed by Romania (60%), Poland (58%), Austria (58%), the Netherlands (56%), Germany (53%) and Denmark (52%).
In Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban rules with an overwhelming majority, 54% of respondents have a “negative” opinion of him, while 32% have a “positive” opinion. (The poll was conducted in the wake of the scandal that forced Hungarian President Katalin Novak to resign, which analysts have described as the biggest test of Orban’s leadership yet.)
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However, Orbán sees a trend towards tolerance in Bulgaria: 47% have a positive view and 24% have a negative view.
The Euronews/Ipsos poll concludes with a look at the most hated leader of all time, Russian President Vladimir Putin, with 79% of respondents having a “negative” opinion of the man wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, 10% have a “positive” opinion of him and 11% said they “don’t know enough” about him.
The condemnation is overwhelming, with Finland (94% “negative”), Sweden (91%), Denmark (91%), Poland (91%), Spain (90%), Portugal (89%), the Netherlands (88%) and France (80%) leading the charge against the Kremlin’s notorious occupant.
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Only four countries have a ‘negative’ rate below the 60% threshold: Greece (59%), Hungary (57%), Slovakia (56%) and Bulgaria (48%).
Once again, Bulgaria stands out as an exceptional case, with 37% of respondents having a “positive” opinion of Putin, the highest rating overall.
This article is the last in a series on an exclusive Euronews opinion poll conducted by Ipsos. A total of 25,916 people were interviewed online and by phone across 18 EU Member States between 23 February and 5 March, representing 96% of the EU population. You can find the full series on our EU Elections hub.
