Macedonians Split on EU Policies

In a poll commissioned by the Macendonian daily Dnevnik and undertaken by local marketing agency Raring,  just 38 per cent of respondents expressed confidence in EU policies.

However the views of the ethnic Macedonian majority and the ethnic Albanian community are radically different.

Fully 72 per cent of the Macedonian majority distrust EU policies with only 24 per cent saying that  they have faith in the EU’s intentions. Among ethnic Albanians the result is almost a mirror image with 74 per cent expressing confidence and just 24 mistrusting the EU.

The phone poll was conducted between November 20 and 23 on a representative sample of the population.

Macedonia gained EU Candidate status in 2005 and the European commission recommended that  EU accession talks start  in 2009. However, the ongoing“name” dispute with EU member Greece has meant that the talks remain on hold.

The poll also measured the popularity of the two main political parties and indicates that the gap between the the ruling centre right VMRO DPMNE and the opposition Social Democrats has remained consistent at 11.3 per cent, with both parties support nudging up by 3.2 per cent since the last survey in September.

The survey places the VMRO DPMNE on 26.7 per cent and the Social Democrats on 15.4 per cent. However the  daily suggests that the surge in ratings of all political parties may be a result of changes in the methodology of the survey, which this time excludes respondents who are unsure if they will turn out to vote and  those who were unsure of their voting intention.

The junior coalition partner the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI took 7.3 percent support, the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, 2.9, and New Democracy, ND, 1.6 per cent.