In case of danger, could Poland count on Germany and France? Before the Russian aggression against Ukraine, many Polish politicians, above all those associated with the Civic Platform, were convinced that the best way to ensure Poland's security was to rely on Berlin and Paris. Today, however, it is clear that this concept was based on false premises. And as it results from the survey conducted by Social Changes on behalf of the portal wPolityce.pl, the Polish society is aware of this facgt as well.

In our survey we asked the following question:

In your opinion - if Russia attacked Poland, would we be able to count on German help, including military support?

This question was answered in the affirmative by 27 percent of respondents.

According to almost half of the respondents - 50 percent - one cannot count on German help.

Interestingly, the vast majority of Civic Platform voters - 58% - still believe that Berlin would help Warsaw in case of Russian aggression.

We also asked the voters whether France would help Poland in case of Russian aggression, including military assistance. The results are only slightly better than in the case of Germany. 27 percent of Poles believe in French help, while 47 percent answer negatively.

The war in Ukraine has verified many myths. It turned out that in the moment of crisis one can count on help from the United States and the United Kingdom. Western European countries, dominating in the European Union, reacted with ambiguity. Germany, which appeared to be a de facto ally of the Kremlin, was particularly disgraced.

The survey was carried out using the CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interview) method on an online panel between 15 and 18 April 2022. The survey was conducted on a nationwide, representative (in terms of: gender, age, size of place of residence) sample of Poles. N=1057 people took part in the survey.

Tłum. K.J.