What does it mean to be patriotic? It depends on a country’s politics.
Pride in one’s country is itself relatively common, according to new results from an international edition of The POLITICO Poll: Majorities of adults across the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Canada, France and Germany all say they are proud of their country.
But that pride looks different in each country. Expressions of patriotism are shaped by a nation’s history and politics. And in a complex political moment when voters’ relationship with each other, their political parties and their countries continues to shift — and nationalist populist movements continue to rise, claiming patriotism as their own — what it means to be patriotic is evolving.
In America, the flag has become a defining feature of national pride, a symbol increasingly claimed by Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. In Canada, people find pride in their political leaders as they seek to counter Washington’s influence. And in Germany, the country’s Nazi history continues to loom over current debates about nationalism.
The survey, conducted by the independent London-based firm Public First, underscores how cultural and political debates shape subtle differences in patriotism across six major democracies of the West.
Tensions over immigration and culture have roiled Europe and the U.S., with right-wing parties often making national identity central to their political message. The symbols and rituals of patriotism also distinguish countries from one another — from debates over what students are taught in schools and whether they should be required to sing the national anthem, to differences in displays of the flag.
Here’s what stands out for each country.
Pluralities of adults in other countries — and 49 percent of Americans — say the U.S. has the most patriotic citizens. That’s partly because of its overt displays of patriotism, with Americans historically placing national flags on their lawns and outside restaurants and businesses, and leaders frequently wearing flag paraphernalia.
That embrace of the flag stands out. The U.S. flag has long been a revered symbol in the country, and most Americans (51 percent) say they own the national flag. That’s significantly more than adults in the other countries — for instance, just 22 percent of U.K. adults say they own a Union Jack and just 27 percent in France say they own a flag.
Still, the American flag has become somewhat partisan.
Trump and his MAGA movement have made patriotism and nationalism central to Republican politics, and more than 70 percent of his 2024 voters say they own an American flag. Just 44 percent of those who backed former Vice President Kamala Harris say the same. Trump voters are also more likely (52 percent) than Harris voters (33 percent) to say that displaying a national flag outside your house is considered an act of patriotism.
Near-majorities of adults in the U.S., the U.K., France, Spain and Canada say their country should be proud of its history. Germany is the outlier, due to its Nazi past.
Just 24 percent of Germans say the country should be proud of its history. A majority — 53 percent — say the country should neither be proud nor ashamed. Still, only 14 percent say Germany should be ashamed, and a 61 percent majority say they feel the country has “done enough to apologize for the bad things it did in the past” — potentially helping explain why most Germans say they feel neutral of the country’s history.
Politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have argued that the country should reclaim a sense of national pride, including by reshaping childhood education so it involves “less Hitler,” as one version of a manifesto published by a regional branch of the party put it. Forty-one percent of voters who plan to back AfD in future elections say Germany should be proud of its history — more than double the number of total adults who say the same.
While such ideas were once considered politically fringe in Germany, they have increasingly moved into the mainstream. The AfD is in first place in national polls, in front of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives, and it’s even further ahead in two eastern states in which regional elections are set for September.
Amid a growing anti-incumbency backlash across the West, Canada stands out.
When asked what makes them most ashamed of their country, just 22 percent of Canadians pointed to their leaders — significantly lower than the 40 percent of Americans, 45 percent of Brits, 52 percent of the French, 43 percent of Germans and 50 percent of Spaniards.
There’s a reason for their more positive outlook on the government. Aided by Trump’s trade war and what have become routine threats to turn Canada into the “51st state,” Mark Carney, a rookie politician, managed to revive Canada’s Liberal Party and win office in April 2025 with promises to stand up to Washington while transforming the oil-rich country into an energy superpower. Carney is even popular in Western Canada — traditionally Conservative territory — thanks to pipeline promises and his rollback of Justin Trudeau-era climate policy. A recent Leger poll showed he’s more popular than any other politician in Quebec.
While the majority of adults across the European countries surveyed expressed national pride, Spaniards are on a different level. A 52 percent majority pick Spain as the best place to live, while most adults in the U.K. and France pick other countries over their own.
That showed up when we asked about pride in nationality, too: A strong 76 percent majority of adults say they are proud to be Spanish, compared with the 68 percent who are proud to be British, 71 percent who are proud to be French and 60 percent who are proud to be German.
In Spain, national pride goes beyond its politics — which has been and is still somewhat tumultuous. Spaniards are reckoning with the echoes of Francisco Franco’s decades-long dictatorship, competing pro-independence movements in regions like Catalonia and the Basque Country, and an ongoing deep dissatisfaction with the way their country is being run.
And still, they exhibit a more optimistic sense of national pride than their European counterparts, partly because of the country’s status on the world stage, through its athletic success as well as its reputation as a tourism and culture hub.
France’s national anthem, the Marseillaise, is a revered national symbol that dates back to the French Revolution.
Most adults in France, 57 percent, say children should be made to sing the national anthem in school, a view that cuts across partisan lines but is most popular among the far-right National Rally (74 percent) and the centrist Ensemble party (67 percent). Meanwhile, just 42 percent of U.K. adults, 32 percent of German adults and 26 percent in Spain say the same.
More broadly, just like the kneeling protests in the NFL provoked outrage among American conservatives, jeering and booing as a form of protest during the French national anthem at sporting events usually stokes controversy — though in France, the furor is often from across the political spectrum.
Ten years after Brexit initiated, an effort to take back control of the U.K., The POLITICO Poll suggests British attitudes toward patriotism remain somewhat pessimistic — and broadly aligned with those elsewhere in Europe.
A 46 percent plurality of adults in the U.K. say “you can’t say you’re proud to be British anymore without being judged,” about on par with the share who say the same in other European countries. Though similar shares of U.K., French and Spanish adults say their countries should be proud of their histories, similar shares of them — and German adults — also say they’re ashamed of their leaders now.
The findings suggest that while Brexit reshaped Britain’s relationship with the European Union, whether it fundamentally changed the country’s sense of national identity is more complex. Other studies have revealed a multi-year decline in U.K. adults taking pride in the country’s achievements.
POLITICO’s Tim Ross, Sue Allan, Joshua Berlinger, James Agelos and Aitor Hernández-Morales contributed to this report.
Politics
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