Government-close foundation: Europeans don’t want leaders to finance war

Europeans expect their leaders to end the war in Ukraine, not to finance it, according to an EU-wide survey conducted by the Századvég Foundation.

The pollsters interviewed 30,000 randomly selected adults between 26 April and 22 June, Századvég told MTI on Thursday.

According to a recent proposal by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a new funding package of EUR 50 billion would be set up from member states’ contributions to support Ukraine in addition to the EUR 83 billion disbursed so far, which would cover Ukraine’s expenses until 2027.

“Under the strategy underlying the package, Ukraine must be supported until it defeats Russia. However, as is shown by the time horizon of the proposal, the idea would lead to a prolongation of the war and its reality is highly questionable,” Századvég said.

The results of the survey show that only one-fifth of European citizens agree with Brussels’s idea and 72% would choose the alternative of bringing the parties to the negotiating table and ending the war immediately.

The position calling for an immediate end to the war has an absolute majority in all member states except Estonia, and the ratio reaches two-thirds in 20 countries. The most pro-peace member states are Hungary with 89%, Greece with 87%, Malta with 86% and Cyprus and Slovenia, each with 85%.

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