US disapproval of Bush rising to European levels
Public opinion in Europe and the US is converging against President George W. Bush, according to a new transatlantic survey released yesterday.
While 77 per cent of EU citizens disapprove of Mr Bush's handling of international affairs, the figure in the US is now 58 per cent, according to the annual Transatlantic Trends poll of 13,000 people in 12 European nations and the US.
ADVERTISEMENT
This is the first time in the five-year history of the poll that more Americans disapprove than approve of Mr Bush's international stance. During that time, European disapproval of the US has risen by more than 20 percentage points, while the proportion of Europeans who favour US leadership of world affairs has fallen from 64 to 37 per cent.
"Every single US official says the transatlantic relationship has improved, but Europeans have made their mind up on Bush," said Ron Asmus, of the German Marshall Fund, which carried out the survey together with the Compagnia di San Paolo, an Italian non-profit organisation. "But Americans and Europeans do not have a fundamental difference on threats and there you have a basis for co-operation."
However, the poll did reveal a widening gap with Turkey, where support for joining the European Union has fallen from 73 per cent in 2004 to 54 per cent this year. In that time, positive feelings towards the EU among Turks have fallen from 52 to 45 per cent, while their positive feelings towards Iran have risen from 34 to 43 per cent. The poll, which included responses from nine EU countries and from Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, said that 94 per cent of Americans and 87 per cent of Europeans believed that a nuclear-armed Iran would be an important threat.
It adds that 37 per cent of respondents in EU countries and Romania and Bulgaria and 45 per cent of Americans believe that military action should be used to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons if all other options fail. Only 10 per cent of Turkish respondents support such a course of action, while 56 per cent said they would accept a nuclear-armed Iran.
Dan Fried, US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs,saw the transatlantic disenchantment with Mr Bush's policy as "short term"
美国逾半民众不赞成布什国际政策
昨天新公布的一份欧美调查显示，欧洲和美国民众对美国总统乔治?W?布什(George W. Bush)的看法正逐渐变得一致。
根据一年一度的跨大西洋趋势(Transatlantic Trends)民意调查的数据，欧洲公民中有77%不赞成布什处理国际事务的方式，而在美国，这一数字目前为58%。此次民意调查覆盖了12个欧洲国家和美国的1.3万人。
58%的数据表明，美国民众中不赞成布什国际立场的人数已经超过了赞成的人数。这是该民意测验在其5年的历史中，首次出现这样的情况。在这5年中，不支持美国的欧洲民众人数上升了逾20个百分点，而赞成美国在世界事务中领导作用的欧洲人则从64%降至37%。
“每个美国官员都说跨大西洋关系有所改善，但欧洲人对布什的看法已经定了型，”德国马歇尔基金会(German Marshall Fund)的罗恩?阿斯穆斯(Ron Asmus)表示。“但美国人和欧洲人在对待安全威胁问题上并无根本分歧，因此存在合作基础。”本次调查由该基金会与意大利非盈利组织――圣保罗银行基金会(Compagnia di San Paolo)共同完成。
此次民意调查显示，94%的美国人和87%的欧洲人认为，如果伊朗拥有核武器，将严重威胁世界安全。此次调查的受访者包括来自9个欧盟国家，以及土耳其、罗马尼亚和保加利亚的民众。
该调查还显示，37%的欧盟国家、罗马尼亚和保加利亚的受访者，以及45%的美国受访者都认为，如果其它方案都行不通，应采取军事行动阻止伊朗获取核武器。而在土耳其的受访者中，只有10%的人支持该行动路线，56%的人表示，他们能接受伊朗拥有核武器。
