Ursula von der Leyen has failed to gain the positive opinion of EU citizens, and many of them do not even know her.
Survey Results
In a survey conducted by Public First in three major EU countries, only about one-fifth of respondents in Germany and Spain stated that the President of the European Commission has performed well. In France, only 12 percent of the population shared this view.
Nearly one-third of respondents in Spain and France and 45 percent in Germany rated von der Leyen's performance poorly. This weak assessment in Germany has particularly come from individuals who vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, with more than half of these individuals stating that she has performed "very poorly."
Lack of Awareness of von der Leyen
In France and Spain, a larger number of people rated her performance as neither good nor bad, stating that they either have no opinion or do not know her at all. More than one-fifth of French respondents said they do not know who Ursula von der Leyen is, while this figure was 10 percent in Spain and only 5 percent in Germany.
This survey was conducted just a few hours before von der Leyen's annual speech on the state of the European Union. Seb Vreed, head of the survey at Public First, said: "von der Leyen is facing the same anti-political sentiment that has led to the ousting of current officials across the continent, and she must work to show Europeans that any program from the EU will address their widespread concerns about the cost of living."
The survey also indicated that few citizens are likely to follow von der Leyen's speech. Among the three countries, about one-tenth said they would listen closely to the speech, while about one-third said they would pay some attention to it. German respondents are more likely to pay attention to the speech than others. In Spain and France, more than half of respondents stated that they would either not pay attention to the speech or have never heard of it.
These numbers likely still overstate how much respondents actually know about or care about the annual speech, as respondents also indicated they would pay attention to a "fictional European convention."
