This question aims to investigate respondents’ opinions on the first of REScEU’s four divides, which separates actors and ideas supporting Europe as a neoliberal and market-enhancing project, from those in favour of correcting market forces in the name of solidarity.
Overall, 61% of the respondents state that the top priority of the Union should be to ensure high levels of social protection for its citizens, while the remaining 39% supports instead fiscal stability and the competitiveness of the EU industry as priorities. Support for the market-correcting side of the divide is predominant in each of the six countries surveyed, but with interesting cross-country variations: Spain is the country in which this view is most widespread (75%), followed, quite surprisingly, by Germany (63%). Perhaps as surprising is that France is last, with 52% of respondents supporting social protection.
Photo Credits CC Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland
This infographic is part of a series examining the results of an original seven-country mass survey conducted by REScEU. Click here to view all the contributions in the series.
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