Poll: Bulgaria’s newly-elected Parliament has a 68% disapproval rating
Bulgaria’s 50th National Assembly, elected on June 9, has an approval rating of a mere nine per cent and a disapproval rating of 68 per cent, according to a poll by the Market Links agency, commissioned by bTV.
Bulgaria’s June 2024 elections saw the lowest voter turnout since democratic elections began in the country in 1991. About 66 per cent of registered voters stayed away from the polling stations.
The Market Links poll, the results of which were released on June 28, found that 23 per cent of respondents wanted new elections in the autumn – an option that has more support than any option for an elected government.
The option that had the most support was a “political-expert” government, backed by 20 per cent, mostly among GERB-UDF and Movement for Rights and Freedoms voters.
Sixteen per cent backed a “cabinet of national salvation” formed with the widest possible party support.
Only eight per cent were in favour of a GERB-UDF minority government relying on support from various formations.
The option of a cabinet made up of GERB-UDF and We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria had the least support, at seven per cent.
GERB-UDF leader Boiko Borissov has said that the only chance for a cabinet to be elected is on the basis of the first mandate to seek to form a government, which his coalition will receive, as Parliament’s largest group. Borissov has called for WCC-DB to support this, but WCC-DB repeatedly has said that it will be in opposition.
Support for new elections in the autumn is lowest among GERB-UDF voters, at four per cent.
Support is keenest among those who voted for the 50th National Assembly’s smallest group, populist-nationalist Velichie (59 per cent), pro-Kremlin party Vuzrazhdane (47 per cent), WCC-DB (32 per cent) and the Bulgarian Socialist Party (26 per cent).
However, the poll found that new elections in the autumn would produce a Parliament with a line-up similar to the current one.
Dobromir Zhivkov of Market Links said that the extreme high level of mistrust arises from the fact that there is no prospect of political stability in the coming months.
The caretaker government has an approval rating of 15 per cent and a disapproval rating of 51 per cent, which Zhivkov said showed that there was a distrust of authorities in general.
Seventy-three per cent said that the campaign ahead of the June elections did not encourage them to vote.
Fifty-one per cent said that politicians used inappropriate language and 46 per cent though the campaign should have culminated in a televised debate among party leaders, which did not happen.
The poll, carried out and financed jointly by Market Links and bTV, was done among 1014 people over the age of 18 between June 18 and 25 2024, using direct personal interviews and online polling.
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