Poll: Hillary Clinton known and liked in Germany
April 27, 2015
The picture from the polls by internet-based market research firm YouGov of US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is similar in Germany and in Britain.
Clinton was seen in a positive light in Germany by 59 percent of respondents. Only 24 percent held a negative opinion.
In Germany, 69-70 percent of the 1,233 respondents questioned by YouGov between April 17 and 21 said they did not know of Republican candidates Marco Rubio, Rand Paul or Ted Cruz, and 52 percent did not recogonize the name Jeb Bush. On the other hand, only 4 percent said they did not know who Hillary Clinton was.
People in both Germany and Britain said Clinton would be good - rather than bad - for the world and for the United States.
In Britain, of the 1,675 people polled on April 18 and 19, 61 percent said they had a positive opinion of Clinton. Only 20 percent had a negative opinion and less than 1 percent said they had never heard of her. Of the 40 percent of people who expressed an opinion about Republican candidate Jeb Bush, only 5 percent of them had a positive opinion of the younger brother of former president George W. Bush.
When Clinton announced on Sunday April 12 via social media that she was running for president, it became front page news for four major UK newspapers.
She also received messages of support from German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius.
Steinmeier wished Clinton success via the pages of Bild, one of Germany's top-selling daily newspapers. "Hillary Clinton ... has profiled herself not only as a reliable partner for Europe and as friend of Germany, but she has also proven she has sure instincts in world crises – from Afghanistan to the Middle East," he wrote.
Steinmeier said he knew Clinton during his first term as foreign minister and "valued her as a wise partner to talk with and also as a politician who can listen."
In both Germany (47 percent) and in Britain (43 percent) people thought she would be 'about the same' in the presidency as current incumbent President Barack Obama. In Germany, 14 percent of respondents said she would be a better president than Obama, while 24 percent said she would be worse.