“High public trust in the EU should empower mainstream politicians.”

In an op’ed for The Brussels Times Pawel Zerka, Senior policy fellow at ECFR and André Wilkens, Director of the European Cultural Foundation, lean on the findings and recommendations in the 2025 Sentiment Compass to call on European politicians to stand up to Trump, and exercise European power.

“It may sound dramatic to call Trump’s second term a “make-or-break” moment for Europe — we’ve heard that warning before. But it’s hard to see how the EU could recover its moral and political authority vis-à-vis its domestic as well as the external audience if it fails today.”

As The Good Lobby already concluded: “The public has already chosen: they want Europe to stand tall, even if it means diverging from Washington.”