The vast majority of Europeans are worried about the number of Muslims in their country and believe the terrorist threat is far from over, according to an EU-wide study out Monday.
The results of the survey by the Szazadveg Foundation, a center-right Hungarian think tank, show an increasingly pessimistic Europe, with 70 percent of those polled believing an increase in Muslim migration is a serious threat to the Continent and 86 percent saying a terrorist attack is likely in their country.
The foundation surveyed 1,000 people in each of the 28 EU member nations. The poll — Project 28: Report on the condition of the European Union — was carried out in April but publication of the results delayed until after the Brexit referendum.
The report states that the majority of European citizens believe “the immigration wave increases the risk of terrorism, the number of criminal activities, and imposes risk on the cultural integrity of the countries that are impacted by it.” The figures back that up, with 77 percent feeling the EU is not doing a good job of tackling the migration crisis and 83 percent wanting the bloc to do more to strengthen its external borders.
Despite that, and the rise of populist parties across the EU, most Europeans don’t want to leave the bloc — 64 percent said they would not sign a petition calling for their country to leave — with support for the EU strong in Hungary and Poland, countries with Euroskeptic governments. The figures from the U.K. did not match the Brexit referendum result, with the survey showing that 40 percent would sign a petition to leave the EU, 50 percent would not, and 10 percent did not know or refused to answer.
Roza Thun, a center-right Polish MEP, said her compatriots “know that [the EU] has worked very well for [them] ... It is impossible to deny the gains that everyone has from membership.”
Andras Lánczi, professor of Corvinus University in Budapest and former chairman of the Szazadveg Foundation, said the findings show that “the split has never been so large between ruling elites and the grassroots.”