Portugal here - I think she was a bigger deal for my parents' generation, whom I heard the most mentions of the character from, especially my mother. I think she saw some of the original live action episodes, I don't think the books were that influential here.
I got to see the american movie as a kud - fun stuff back then, even cried in the end, although I doubt it would hold up nowadays.
Speaking of the movie, iirc there Pippi's father just mentioned cannibals and turning them vegetarian, which should be enough to deal with that bit of controversy - it's escapist fantasy after all.
Alas, Pippi's unlikely to recover or sustain success around here by her known name, as "pipi" is sort of childish slang for the lower girly bits here...
Still, I sometimes entertain the silly concept of some big magical girl crossover like the SRW games where Pippi gets to be a heavy mellee unit...