Portuguese strongly in favour of public health as priority issue in EU Parliament

Nearly three-quarters of the Portuguese (72%) consider that public health should be the political priority of the European Parliament, this being, prominently, the highest figure among the 27 Member States, reveals a survey published on Tuesday.

The Autumn 2021 “Eurobarometer” survey promoted by the European Parliament halfway through the parliamentary term and still against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, reveals that public health is elected as the subject that European citizens consider should be treated as a priority by the European assembly (42%), followed by the fight against poverty and social exclusion (40%) and the fight against climate change (39%).

In Portugal, however, the percentage of respondents ‘electing’ public health as the top political priority reaches 72%, a figure 30 points above the Community average and which leaves the second and third countries, Cyprus (61%) and Spain (60%), at a considerable distance.

With respondents able to choose up to a maximum of four priorities, the Portuguese come next in fighting poverty and social exclusion (61%) and supporting the economy and job creation (60%), while combating climate change comes fourth (41%).

The European Parliament should give priority to democracy and the rule of law, which was chosen by the average European with 25% of the votes, by only 9% of Portuguese respondents and only in 12th place among the priorities highlighted in Portugal.

This autumn ‘Eurobarometer’ of the European Parliament was conducted between November 1 and December 2 2021 in the 27 EU Member States, with a total of 26,510 interviews conducted and 1,004 people surveyed in Portugal.

The EU results are weighted according to the population size of each country.