Research Report: Sentiment Analysis of the EU, U.S., Russia, China and Turkey in Social Media of the Western Balkans and three EaP countries
The GEO-POWER-EU project has published a comprehensive sentiment analysis examining public emotional reactions toward the European Union, the United States, Russia, China, and Turkey across six countries in the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership (EaP).
Based on approximately 37,000 posts from X and Facebook collected between 14 February and 14 March 2025, the study applies a hybrid methodology combining Natural Language Processing (NLP) with human validation to ensure reliability and cross-platform consistency.
The findings reveal clear regional contrasts. In the Western Balkans, the EU generally received more negative sentiment, while reactions to Russia were more mixed. In EaP countries, especially Ukraine-Russia was viewed overwhelmingly negatively, whereas the EU received more positive reactions on X. The US received consistently negative reactions in EaP countries and mixed in the WB countries. China tended to be viewed more positively in the Western Balkans and more negatively in the EaP, while Turkey emerged as the most positively perceived actor overall. The analysis also shows that Facebook discussions were more emotionally polarized than those on X, underscoring the importance of cross-platform monitoring.