The new poll found that the British hope leaders who violated the rules will fix it.

View of protesters during rally in the UK Parliament Square.

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People across Europe say their country is declining and society is being broken, according to a new IPSOS poll shared with CNBC.

Negative sentiment has developed in Europe's major economies over the past four years - citizens of Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy have increasingly shared their belief in societal "bankruptcy" over the past four years.

"The tendency toward populism and anti-establishment sentiment is very stable and high globally," U.S. President Clifford Young told CNBC on Thursday.

Populist sentiment dominated election discussions throughout Europe, with tough patriots of the European bloc receiving more than 10% of the vote in last year's European Parliament elections.

Over the past week, Trump-backed candidates have won the Polish presidency in a second narrow ballot, while in Romania, pro-European Nicusor Dan won the presidential vote by running for president after losing to a far-right candidate.

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In Germany, 77% of respondents said they believe society has been destroyed - which is 16 percentage points since the study was conducted in 2021. Both Britain and France have increased by double-digit percentage.

Europe's largest economy has seen a share of its political turmoil in recent months. The Für Deutschland party, the German far-right alternative, received more than 20% of the national vote in the February election, doubled its share of votes since 2021.

Since then, two traditional centrist parties in the country have formed a government and passed legislation that allows large-scale borrowing to be used for defense and infrastructure.

Teneo's Carsten Nickel described the German government's plan on Thursday as "a large-scale, large-scale real-time experiment in Europe's largest economy. With 500 billion public investment, can you really lower the AFD vote?"

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Economic concerns seem to increase populist sentiment throughout the continent. In each of the European countries that participated in the survey, people were more likely to not believe that their economy was beneficial to take advantage of the rich.

About 72% of UK respondents agree with this statement, which is the largest number in Europe and more than any other country in the G7. However, this sentiment is shared globally, with 29 of the 31 countries included in the report saying their economies are being manipulated.

Daphne Halikiopoulou, a scholar at the University of York, said right-wing populist parties are adjusting their messaging to attract these voters.

“These parties are talking more and more about economics, attracting what I call peripheral voters, so those who do not vote for the far-right as endorsement, instead (a) protest against other parties, mainstream parties, who think they have failed socially and economically.”

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The British are most likely to support the shift to “strong leaders who violate the rules” to address the problems they see in the economy. More than half of respondents agreed to need a strong leader, while only 24% in Germany wanted a rule leader, compared to only 38% in the United States.

Young said this shows that “people are very upset because they don’t feel like they’re getting fair dues”, while Lizzie Galbraith, a senior political economist in Aberdeen, said: “There’s been some evidence in the UK for a while, and there are levels of dissatisfaction with the status quo… The decline in living standards may be a real good reason, which is the reason for this dissatisfaction.”

UK-based management Labour has faced pressure in a poll of the right-wing reform party led by Nigel Farage, who recently outlined plans to expand welfare payments and cut taxes.

However, pressure on public finances may limit the government’s ability to spend offers on its own to increase its visibility.

Nickel told CNBC that the “extremely limited fiscal space” allows the Labor government to react to “short-term fiscal,” ultimately, interest rate trends, and then be able to look at and really make the investment required to make a difference, or possibly make a difference. ”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a roundtable with British business leaders on Downing Street, London on April 3, 2025.

Ben Punching |by Reuters

If these financial pressures succeed in securing power across Europe, they may also influence the policy platform of populist parties. “In fact, it will be more challenging to implement these policies in practice,” Galbraith said.

“We often see populist parties fall into moderation when they enter the government because of their financial constraints,” she added.

France is scheduled to be the next major economy in Europe when the presidential election is held in 2027, and it is another country where we see signs of public frustration. 65% of respondents surveyed by IPSOS agreed that the country’s “social is broken”.

Galbraith described the French government's position as "really difficult", warning that President Emmanuel Macron would "suffer from the pain of political division until the presidential election" as he hopes for economic reforms through an in-depth National Assembly.

National Rally leader Marine Le Pen was banned from election after being convicted of embezzlement of public funds - a charge she denied. Halikiopoulou said the decision could be a "double-edged sword" while the far-right parties want to show themselves as "victim".