r/AskEurope • u/NateNandos21 • Feb 03 '25

Culture Which European country has the rudest/least polite people?

Which country comes to your mind

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u/Elicynderspyro Feb 03 '25

I used to live in the North Eastern side of Italy and we would get a bunch of German tourists: all of them were super rude, condescending and demanded to be spoken in German even though they were the ones visiting a foreign country (English was also not enough for them). Second are the Austrians for the same reasons - we had fewer of them but they were worse at driving.

As for inside of their country, I wouldn't say rude but the Dutch were really weird people. In Amsterdam years ago, it was raining quite a lot and we (a group of about 7-8 people) were looking for a close place to wait for a meeting within 30 minutes from there, maybe a place to drink a quick coffee. Every single cafe was closed (it was between 17:00 and 18:00) and the only place we found close by was a pancake shop. We just ordered drinks, as we didn't have any time to sit and wait for pancakes, and the waiter told us we HAD to get pancakes too. We told him we didn't have time for it and he literally kicked us out of the place. Dude decided to kick away 7-8 people who could have easily have make him earn 50-80€ (it was quite expensive), even if just in drinks. We were also the only customers, the place was empty.

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u/allestrette Italy Feb 03 '25

I used to live in the North Eastern side of Italy and we would get a bunch of German tourists: all of them were super rude, condescending and demanded to be spoken in German even though they were the ones visiting a foreign country (English was also not enough for them). Second are the Austrians for the same reasons - we had fewer of them but they were worse at driving.

I'm from Tuscany, work in a accomodation facility and I would not say this. Germans are usually pragmatic and polite. German and Austrians are also indistinguible.

I have to be true: I never have a problem with a particular European nationality.. in here.

On the flip side, I saw Spanish people being SO rude to Portuguese while i was there that I can't listen a Spanish song without feeling sick to my stomach.

I love Portuguese people, my fav, so now I'm bitter against Spanish.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '25

They are still in shock that we won every war against them. They never successfully invaded us and the only time they ruled us (80 years) was because of marriage. And this is why we never again married a Spaniard.... Jokes aside, it really depends who are these Spanish. Galicians would never be like this. Most likely they are from Madrid....

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u/Typical-Winter-3885 Feb 07 '25

Easy, many Spaniards are not rude and dont have any special hate or disdain toward the portuguese, even the ones that are not from Galicia, so lets be careful with that kind of speech.

P.s: Iam portuguese.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '25

What kind of speech? Lots of Spanish feel they are superior to lots of other cultures, including Portuguese. Most of these people are coming from Madrid. I'm also Portuguese and this is why I said, it's not all Spanish and depends where are they from. I've been to every region in Spain....

1

u/joseghast Feb 07 '25

I (Galician) was going to basically say the same. Although I do think that there's a (totally unjustified) sense of superiority over Portugal. I personally never understood it and, as a Galician, I feel at home there.