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January 19, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 10
be linked to his plans - as yet unfulfilled - to build a wall to keep Mexican migrants out; Macedonia found itself on the frontline of the migrant crisis in 2015 when it was the main entry point for migrants seeking to travel from Greece across the Balkans to Germany and other northern European countries.
Approval of the US leadership also increased in Russia, despite the diplomatic standoff between the two countries, which intensified in 2017, and in most of Central Asia — Trump’s image in Kazakhstan could get a further boost this year as Kazakhstan struck deals with US companies worth a total of $7.5bn as the US president met with his Kazakhstani counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev.
By contrast, the US leadership has lost most ground among Washington’s allies, with its approval rating falling to just 25% in Europe and an even lower 24% in the Americas. The steepest declines were found in Portugal, Belgium, Norway and Canada, where approval
ratings of the US leadership dropped by 40 points or more.
Aside from Macedonia, approval for the US leadership dropped in most Southeast European countries, with the sharpest declines recorded in Croatia (-20pp) Romania (-18pp), which traditionally is a strong backer of the US. The US has managed to alienate both liberals and conservatives in Romania; liberals broadly speaking are critical of his policies especially
on immigration and climate change, while
US diplomats' criticism of Romania's ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) for its attempts to undermine the anti-corruption fight have upset some of the party's more conservative supporters.
In Africa, where the US leadership typically has a high approval rating, it dropped to 51%, even while rising in some countries. Still there is speculation the decline will deepen in 2018, given the US president’s recent description of African countries as “s***holes”.
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