A SNCF employee walks on an empty platform of the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images ANALYSIS European citizens support strict coronavirus lockdown, say polls Privacy concerns take a back seat amid crisis.

Polling from across Europe suggests that citizens not only support confinement measures, but would be happy for governments to apply even more draconian crackdown to stop the spread of coronavirus. That's despite unprecedented restrictions on personal freedoms and daily life.

Italy

In the week after Italy closed all schools and banned non-essential internal movement, a poll published on March 14 found that 62 percent of Italians thought the measures were effective. A poll released this week by SWG suggests Italians would tolerate even tougher measures, with 63 percent saying they would back state control of citizens' movement, even without their consent. Sixty-four percent are in favor of electronic tags for people in quarantine; 67 percent backed the idea of using cell phone data to check people are abiding by movement restrictions; and 74 percent were happy for the state to use drones to patrol the lockdown. Just 23 percent were concerned about violation of privacy.

The government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte benefits from the support for the actions taken to combat the crisis and enjoys the highest approval ratings with more than 70 percent, a value not recorded for any of the previous government in Italy.

Germany

A poll by Forsa this week for RTL and n-tv suggests that 88 percent of Germans think the current lockdown measures (which vary by state) are correct. A majority (55 percent) are in favor of stricter measures with 42 percent against that. Just 10 percent advocate an early loosening of the measures. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party jumped from 27 percent to 33 percent over the course of March, according to POLITICO's Poll of Polls.

A poll conducted on the last two days of March finds the highest approval ratings for Angela Merkel since the beginning of this term with 64 percent of respondents support, an increase of 11 percentage points.

GERMANY NATIONAL PARLIAMENT POLL OF POLLS

For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.

France

The figures for France are strikingly similar. When asked about the confinement measures implemented by the French government, 57 percent of respondents said they are not strict enough, 40 percent answered the restrictions are sufficient and just three percent found them to be too strict, according to a BVA poll. POLITICO's tracker of approval ratings for President Emmanuel Macron also show an upward trend since the beginning of the crisis. This "rally around the flag" effect can be observed in several countries during this time of crisis.

MACRON APPROVAL RATINGS

For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.

Poland

Research conducted by NEUROHM and BradConsulting in cooperation with Onet asked Poles about the assessment of their government's actions. Interestingly, although 45 percent of respondents say the country is not prepared for the fight against coronavirus, only one in four says the government does not protect citizens effectively enough. A clear majority of 63 percent also deems it necessary to postpone the Polish presidential election scheduled for May 10.

POLAND PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION POLL OF POLLS

For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.

United Kingdom

In the U.K., there is extraordinarily high support for the current measures (92 percent) with 57 percent of respondents in favor of more drastic rules, according to the most recent poll by Opinium. Thirty-three percent said they thought there should be a ban on public transport, while 38 percent think the government should ban travel between local areas. A majority (56 percent) say the government did not act fast enough.

Tories have risen to 52 percent from 47 percent at the beginning of March in voting intentions, according to POLITICO Poll of Polls.

But while people say they support the measures, there is some evidence they are becoming less likely to abide by them. A Savanta survey for the U.K. finds and an increasing number of people leaving their house and fewer people self-isolating in recent days.