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Links between a critical vision of "Frexit", and concern for global poverty

Published 26 August 2019 in Surveys

32% of French people think they would be worse off financially if France left the European Union. 17% think the opposite and 31% think it would not make any difference to them.

We can see a link between a fear of ’Frexit’ and concern with poverty in the world. Under every scenario, support for France’s membership of the European Union is correlated with interest and concern for development issues.

43% of French people who say they are concerned about global poverty also think their financial situation would be worse off after leaving the EU, compared to 23% for French people who are not interest in development and poverty issues.

Voters for (far-right candidate) Marine Le Pen in the first round of the 2017 Presidential election are those who are the least concerned by global poverty, and in parallel the most optimistic about their finances under a Frexit scenario.

On the other hand, voters for (center and future President) Emmanuel Macron had the highest numbers of those who feared the impact of Frexit on their financial situation, and were also the highest numbers (in addition to traditional left-wing voters) to support development projects.

This data comes from our survey conducted by the YouGov Institute and piloted by the research team at University College London and the University of Birmingham as part of the project Aid Attitudes Tracker which measures the evolution of opinions and behaviors on issues of international solidarity in four countries.