Moscow, Sputnik Press — Office — When asked about the upsurge in popularity of opposition parties in Europe, survey respondents cited three reasons for this trend: a high level of immigration (47 percent), broken promises (46 percent), and disillusionment with the European Union (38 percent), a new Sputnik.Poll has shown. The survey was conducted by London-based ICM Research in the United Kingdom, France and Spain for Sputnik International News Agency and Radio.
To the question "What, in your view, are the main reasons behind the growing popularity of right-wing parties like UKIP in Great Britain and the National Front in France, and the leftist Podemos in Spain?," more than half of respondents in Britain (53 percent) and almost one third in France (30 percent) said that the opposition parties are gaining momentum because of disillusion with the European Union. In France and Spain, 44 percent of respondents pointed to economic failures.
Almost half of Spanish respondents (49 percent) said social reforms were needed, and for 55 percent, the popularity of opposition parties is being driven by empty promises that were never kept. Of the total number of respondents, 10 percent answered "I don't know" and 11 percent chose "other."
The survey was conducted by ICM Research for Sputnik News Agency on May 1-4, 2015 in the United Kingdom, France, and Spain and was based on interviews with 4,097 people (2,005 in the United Kingdom, 1,041 in France, and 1,051 in Spain), using samples that are representative of the total population in terms of gender, age and geography.
The confidence interval is +/- 3.1 percent, with a confidence coefficient of 95 percent.
About the Sputnik.Polls Project
The international public opinion project kicked off in July 2014, in partnership with ICM Research, a reputable British pollster. The project involves regular surveys in the United States and Europe on the most sensitive social and political issues.
Sputnik (sputniknews.com) is a news agency and radio network with multimedia news hubs in dozens of countries. Sputnik broadcasts through its websites, analog and digital radio, mobile apps and social media.
