Residents of the country, as well as residents of Serbia and BiH, do not feel like they belong to neither the East or the West, but largely prefer western alliances, a new survey by the International Republican Institute (IRI) showed.
However, people are happier for further greater engagement with the West, which connects the population in the Western Balkans to prosperity, so 68% of the citizens of the country support EU membership. By contrast, only 50% of Serbia’s citizens are for the EU, compared to 72% of BiH citizens and 85% of Kosovo citizens. Support for cooperation with NATO, in Kosovo, is 91%, in North Macedonia 87%, in BiH 67%, and in Serbia 49%.
The regional public opinion survey, which was presented today, was conducted in the second half of November 2018 in Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia. In the part that was conducted in the Republic of North ,1.062 citizens answered through face-to-face interviews, as a representative sample, and the margin of error was +/- 3.21%.
Regarding the where the country is heading, 46% of citizens think that it is the wrong direction, while 39% answered positively, and 15% refused to respond.
On the other hand, as many as 79% of respondents in the Republic of North Macedonia responded that today’s generation of young people do not have a good future in the country, while 16% think they have, and 5% refused to respond.
Asked if they would vote if parliamentary elections were held this week, 52% of respondents in the Republic of North Macedonia said that they would vote for sure, while 19% said they would probably vote.
When asked which party they would vote for, 36% said they would vote for SDSM and the coalition, 35% for the VMRO-DPMNE and their coalition, 13% for DUI, 6% for the Alliance for Albanians, 3% for the DPA, 3% for Kasami’s BESA, and 2% for Gashi’s BESA.
It is characteristic that 40% of the respondents in the Republic of North Macedonia believe that the major media broadcasters in the country try to be professional and impartial, but their view of the world prevents them from reporting the complete picture. The other 32% of respondents, however, believe that the major media broadcasters are not interested in factual or accurate information, but are focused on propagating positions that serve unethical interests. Only 21% believe that the larger media outlets are professional and impartial.
