On June 9, 2024, citizens of EU countries are called to the polls for the European legislative elections. One month before the election, West France and Ifop publish the results of a survey on the relationship of the French to Europe: how they perceive it, how they feel its effects, which countries they feel closest to…
The survey was carried out among 4,800 people spread across all regions, including overseas. In Guyana, around 200 people were interviewed.
An ambivalent feeling dominates at the national level. Concern is the term most frequently used to characterize their relationship with Europe (46% of responses), although at the same time, a majority expresses pride in being a member (59%).
Read also: our interview with political scientist Jérôme Fourquet
Worry, majority feeling
At the question “Among the following qualifiers (anger, worry, indifference, optimism, confidence), which best describes your state of mind towards Europe? »37% of the inhabitants of Guyana respond with concern, a majority feeling in all regions, but with the lowest rate compared to all French people, 46%.
In Guyana, the feeling of anger (6%) occurs much less often than at the national level (13%), but indifference is more marked (25% compared to 16% at the national level). Optimism is higher than in the general population (18% versus 10%), but confidence is at the same level (14% versus 15%).
And yet pride
At the question “Do you personally feel proud to be European? »Guyana answers yes at 66% (29% often, 37% from time to time), slightly above the national average (59%, 22% often, 37% from time to time).
34% of respondents in Guyana respond that they rarely (15%) or never (19%) feel proud to be European.
Asked about the effects of European construction that began 60 years ago, 50% of French people as a whole believe that it has had rather positive effects for other European countries, and 43% for France. In Guyana, the feeling is about this average, with 48% rather positive effects for the other EU countries, and 44% for France.
Europe and the territories
At the national level, 70% of respondents believe that the Paris region benefits from the policy and financial resources of the European Union, a proportion which drops to 36% for rural municipalities. 79% of the inhabitants of Guyana believe that the Paris region benefits from community policy, and 41% think that the overseas territories also benefit, the highest score in the overseas territories.
At the question “Which territorial level do you trust the most to respond to the challenges of the future? First ? And second? », the French place the regions (46%) and departments (39%) at the top. Europe comes in last position (20%).
In Guyana, the region is less popular (41%), unlike the municipality (42%, compared to 35% at the national level). Europe is at 28%, and the State at 26%, below the 33% cited by all French people.
Who do we feel closest to?
At the question : “Apart from France, which European country do you feel closest to? First ? And second? », Spain and Germany come back most often, ahead of Belgium and Italy. Guyana follows this trend, but stands out by citing the Netherlands (10%), a legacy of colonial history.
79% of French people have already traveled or vacationed in a European country other than France, and 20% have even lived there for several months for studies, work or for another reason. These proportions are 62% and 13% in Guyana, higher than other overseas territories.
Methodology
This survey was carried out by Ifop to West France from a sample of 4,821 people, representative of the French population aged 18 and over.
Within the sample, around 300 people were interviewed per region of the continent (3,551 in total), 252 in Corsica and 1,018 in the overseas departments and regions (around 200 per department). During the statistical processing of the results, the population of each overseas region and department was reduced to its actual weight in the French population.
The representativeness of the sample was ensured by the quota method (sex, age, profession of the person interviewed), after stratification by region and category of agglomeration.
The results of such a survey involve uncertainty, and each figure given is actually the middle of the range within which the true value lies. This is what we call the margin of error, or confidence interval. This margin varies depending on the size of the sample and the level of the percentages observed. The closer the result is to 50%, the higher the margin.
On a sample of 4,821 people, the margins of error range from 0.6 to 1.4%. On samples of 200 to 300 people (for regional results for example), the margins range from 2.5 to 7.1%.
The interviews were carried out by telephone from April 4 to 13, 2024 for Corsica and the overseas departments, and by self-administered online questionnaire for the continent, from April 17 to 25, 2024.
