Eurobarometer poll: 22% of Bulgarians do not want Covid-19 vaccination
Eighteen per cent of Bulgarians want to be vaccinated against Covid-19 as soon as possible but 22 per cent say that they intend “never” to be vaccinated, according to a poll by Eurobarometer.
The EU-wide survey, the Eurobarometer winter poll, was conducted between February 12 and March 18 2021.
Bulgaria’s figure of 18 per cent who want to be vaccinated as soon as possible is significantly lower than the average for the EU, of 42 per cent.
Twenty-one per cent of the Bulgarians polled said that they wanted to get the jab “some time in 2021” while 32 per cent said they wanted it “later”. One per cent told the pollsters that they already had been vaccinated.
The EU average for those who answered “never” was 12 per cent. Other countries where one in five or more answered “never” were Cyprus – the highest, at 26 per cent – Latvia (23 per cent), France (22 per cent), Hungary (22 per cent), Slovenia (21 per cent) and Austria and Poland (both 20 per cent).
Fifty-five per cent of Bulgarians said that they were satisfied with the measures taken by the EU to fight the new coronavirus pandemic, while 32 per cent said that they were not.
Forty-seven per cent said that they were satisfied with the steps taken at national level, but 50 per cent were not.
Asked when Bulgaria’s economy would recover from the crisis, 46 per cent said “2023 or later”, 25 per cent said “2022”, seven per cent “2021”. Ten per cent said that they did not know, while 12 per cent said that Bulgaria’s economy would never recover.
Nine per cent said that they had found the anti-epidemic measures very difficult to cope with, and that they put their physical and mental health at risk.
Two per cent said that they found the measures very easy to cope with, 25 per cent said “fairly easy” and 33 per cent “fairly difficult”. According to Eurobarometer, 31 per cent said that they found the measures “both easy and difficult” to cope with.
Eighty-two per cent described the situation of the Bulgarian economy as bad, while 10 per cent said that it was good – a drop of two percentage points compared with Eurobarometer’s summer poll.
The percentage of Bulgarians with a positive image of the EU has risen since the summer poll, in line with a trend across the EU.
Across the 27-member bloc, the positive image of the EU (46 per cent) has reached its highest level since autumn 2009, after a six-percentage point increase since summer 2020. Fewer people have a neutral image of the EU (38 per cent, down two percentage points), while 15 per cent (down four percentage points) have a negative image of the EU.
In Bulgaria, 59 per cent of those polled had a positive image of the EU, up six points since summer. Twenty-five per cent have a neutral image, down by two points, while 14 per cent have a negative image, down by six points.
Asked if they trusted the EU, 53 per cent of Bulgarians polled said that they did, 29 per cent said that they did not, and 18 per cent answered “don’t know”.
On the question of support for the euro, 41 per cent were against, 40 per cent were for and 19 per cent answered “don’t know”.
Across the EU, support for the euro remains very high: 79 per cent (an increase of four percentage points) of citizens in the euro zone are in favour of the euro, the highest point since 2004, with figures ranging from 95 per cent in Portugal to 70 per cent in France and Austria.
Overall in the EU, seven in 10 Europeans support the euro (70 per cent, a gain of three points), the highest level ever recorded.
(Photo: EC Audiovisual Service)
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