Western Europeans Expect Violence if Trump Loses

Americans are heading to the polls today to cast their ballot in the U.S. presidential election. With the next president set to head not only the United States but also NATO, the result will have global repercussions. 

In Western Europe, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is the preferred option, as shown by a YouGov and Eurotrack survey conducted between October 9-24. Across the seven countries polled, results differed by partisanship, with support for Harris highest among those who support parties on the left in their country of residence, while support for Trump was more likely among politically right-leaning respondents. 

YouGov also asked respondents about their thoughts on the chances of violence if Trump loses the election, as was the case with the January 6 riots last year. Danish respondents were most likely to say there will “definitely” or “probably” be violence if Harris wins at 73 percent, while only 47 percent of Italians thought the same. In Italy, this was still a more commonly held belief than the 32 percent who thought violence was unlikely, while 22 percent said they did not know.

U.S. adults were asked the same question. Just over half said they thought violence was likely. Along party lines though, this rose to 74 percent of Democrats, while it was 52 percent of Independents and 32 percent of Republicans.