'On the wrong path': Which European countries think they're doomed?

A mix of political instability, inflation, and perceived crime and violence has driven France's confidence to the bottom.

According to a recent IPSOS poll of thirty countries, a striking 92% of French people believe their country is going off the rails. Moreover, almost one in three respondents claims the decline is irreversible

But the French are not alone.

Widespread pessimism is also apparent in all surveyed European countries, including the Netherlands (83%), Hungary (80%), Germany (77%), Italy (73%), the UK (73%) and Sweden (72%), meaning the vast majority believe the country is on the wrong path.

Do French voters no longer believe in the current democratic system?

In France, the striking string of political crises is weighing ever more heavily on the negative public sentiment.

After the resignation of three prime ministers in less than a year — Michel Barnier, François Bayrou and Sébastien Lecornu, later reappointed — nearly six out of 10 French citizens are now concerned about the current political crisis.

In this context, 81% believe their democracy is no longer "functioning" properly and their ideas are "not represented", says IPSOS. That's a sentiment shared by the majority of voters, except those supporting President Emmanuel Macron's ruling Renaissance party.

Wider picture: What's replaced the cost of living as the top concern?

Summer 2025 marked a significant shift in the list of the most pressing issues in the countries surveyed by IPSOS.

Inflation and the cost of living are no longer the top worries, having been surpassed by crime and violence (33%).

Among European countries, safety is the dominant concern in France (35%), Germany (35%), Belgium (33%) and especially Sweden (57%).

War worries Poles more than Israelis as climate crisis left forgotten

The wider European picture is much more varied.

For example, compared to the rest of the continent, Hungarians seem disproportionately concerned about the state of their healthcare (63%), while migration control is the main issue for respondents in the UK (44%).

Meanwhile, the risk of military conflict has been gaining urgency (it's now in ninth place, up 3% since October 2024), becoming the most pressing issue in Poland (46%) which surpasses the rate seen in Israel (37%).

Worries about extremism are also increasing in Europe and the US, pushing it to 12th place.

Climate change is tied with conflicts in ninth place, but lost four points from last year, and no surveyed countries indicated it as the top issue to address, despite the threats that the scientific community says it poses.

In fact, the 2021-2025 trend shows that fewer people feel that it's a pressing priority to act on the climate crisis, particularly in Poland (-18%), Germany (-16%), France (-15%), and Spain (-15%).

The Netherlands is the European country most worried about the climate crisis (21%), while, worldwide, Japan is top of the table (30%).