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There are plenty of polls asking the British population what they think about Brexit, but there are hardly any polls regarding Continental Europe's view on it; especially no recent ones.

Judging from my own personal bubble, we were shocked after the results of the 2016 Brexit Referendum and the turmoil thereafter; but increasingly saw the United Kingdom as a political liability and were relieved when they finally left the Union on 31st of December 2020. In this sense, we still consider UK's decision as ill-advised, but at the same time approve the completion of its withdrawal.

This of course is just an anecdotal view, but should demonstrate the nuance in opinion, and why I don't ask the question "Are Continental Europeans pro or contra Brexit?", because they may be both (Namely not wanting the UK to leave, but wanting this UK to leave). I also wonder whether animosity towards Britons and their government has increased, as they could be seen as ungrateful brats constantly overplaying their hands; or instead are admired for standing up to their interests, inspiring and strengthening euro-skeptic sentiments in Continental Europe.


How did the view of Continental Europe on Brexit change between the 2016 Referendum and today? (Please source with polls) This can also include opinions of populations outside the EU, as in Norway, Switzerland, or Serbia; but should not focus on a single country.

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    On the first glance, there have not been many polls about Brexit itself in that time range. There have been several on concrete questions like which scenario the EU should try to push in negotiations, whether it should allow another delay, etc. There were a few attempts to gauge (expectations of) economic consequences, but these were mostly directed at companies, not public opinion polls.
    – Hulk
    Commented Feb 1, 2021 at 7:23
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    Comments deleted. The question is asking for polling data.This comment section is not a place to tell us your personal opinions or the opinions of your personal circle. And especially it's not a place to debate biases of different media outlets, and especially not those in the United States. For more information on how comments should and should not be used on this website, please review the help article about the commenting privilege.
    – Philipp
    Commented Feb 1, 2021 at 10:09
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    @Fizz how does that make the question premature? Public opinion in the immediate aftermath of the end of the transition may not resemble public opinion in one year's time, much less five or ten, but it is a point of interest in its own right.
    – phoog
    Commented Feb 1, 2021 at 14:32
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    There's clearly a lot going on right now and attitudes are likely to change very quickly based on developing situations. For example the current Vaccine situation has been called The Best Advert for Brexit by one European paper. Similar reporting is very likely to change mood dramtically depending on what happens over the next couple of weeks. I'd expect polling to be too volatile to be worth conducting at this stage. Remember Brexit basically on happened 31 days ago.
    – Jontia
    Commented Feb 1, 2021 at 14:48
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    @Jontia: One could also argue that it's worth conducting more polls to capture a rapid shift in opinion because the situation is so volatile.
    – raznagul
    Commented Feb 1, 2021 at 16:44

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I think that there is not yet a single study at the European level, but you can try to do a comparative study with national data, which is old, since a lot of other global events happened (COVID, Ukraine war, climate change).

I found this study on the mention of Brexit in Italian Twitter, published by the Italian Statistical association in 2016, which said that at the time, euroskepticism was dominant in Twitter

This is a citation from the page of the article:

The four clusters are of different sizes (Table 2), and they reflect the Italian sentiments toward Brexit. The first cluster represents the Soros scandal as a conspiracy that disregards the democratic expression of Britons’ choice; the second cluster reflects Italian satisfaction in considering Brexit as a bad deal for Britons, who are punished for their betrayal; the third cluster concerns the negative European economic impact of the British policy, which is perceived as an unfair British advantage causing a loss for EU citizens; and the fourth cluster highlights the hope for a British comeback through a new referendum. By clusters interpretation, no group highlights a positive sentiment in the direction of British exit from the EU. Nevertheless, we have considered as positive or satisfactory (51.5%) the British punishment and the hope for a British comeback, and negative the other two (48.5%), the unfair British advantage and the citizen right violation.

Table representing subdivision of clusters and keywords

You should look for similar studies for all European countries, aggregate them, and repeat a study using a proper methodology to have a reliable answer, and it still would be limited to the social media sphere, so you'd probably have to identify and correct biases.

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