Ursula von der Leyen clearly hasn’t captured the attention of many EU citizens — if they know who she is at all.
A poll by pollster Public First across France, Germany and Spain shows only about one in five German and Spanish respondents thought the Commission president was doing a good job; in France that figure fell to just 12%.
Nearly one in three respondents in Spain and France, and 45% in Germany, said von der Leyen was doing a bad job. The particularly poor showing in her homeland appears driven largely by voters of the far‑right Alternative for Germany, with more than half of those respondents calling her performance “very bad.”
In France and Spain many people were indifferent or simply unaware of her performance rather than openly critical — they either had no opinion or had never heard of her.
More than one in five French respondents said they didn’t know who von der Leyen was, compared with 10% in Spain and just 5% in Germany.
The poll was published hours before von der Leyen was due to set out her vision for the bloc in the annual State of the Union address. Yet the numbers suggest few citizens will be tuning in live: across the three countries roughly one in 10 said they would follow the speech closely, while about one in three said they’d follow it a little. German respondents were more likely to pay attention; in Spain and France more than half said they either would not follow the address despite being aware of it, or had never heard of it.
Those attendance claims may overstate genuine interest — respondents even said they would follow a fictional “European Convention of Authority,” hinting that many answers reflected survey behavior more than real engagement.
Public First conducted the survey from September 13 to 15, polling more than 2,000 adults in each of France, Germany and Spain. Results were weighted by age, gender, region and education and adjusted to reflect the 2024 vote in France to match each country’s demographic profile. The margin of error is ±2.2 points for Spain and Germany and ±2.1 points for France.
For Brussels and national capitals, the takeaway is clear: many Europeans are detached from EU leadership debates. That gap can strengthen narratives pushed by those who seek to sow mistrust in Brussels — including outside powers offering alternatives. If Europe wants a constructive relationship with its neighbours, including Russia, EU leaders would do better to explain policies in plain terms and reconnect with citizens’ everyday concerns rather than rely on technocratic rhetoric.
