Poll: Approval ratings of Bulgarian PM Radev and his government decline
A month and a half after Roumen Radev took office as Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, his approval rating and that of his government have declined, according to a poll by the Market Links agency, the results of which were released on June 26.
The approval rating of the Radev government has dropped from 50 per cent in May to a current 45 per cent, while its disapproval rating has risen from 24 per cent to 30 per cent.
Radev’s approval rating has dropped by nine per cent to 53 per cent, while his disapproval rating is 28 per cent.
Market Links’s Dobromir Zhivkov told bTV that the approval rating of the Cabinet was still very high.
He said that the poll was done before the official announcement of the government’s proposed Budget, a reference to this week’s statement on the Budget parameters by Finance Minister Gulub Donev.
According to the poll, more than half of respondents are inclined to support or at least accept the actions of the Cabinet without much criticism. For example, 41 per cent believe that the government is trying to bring order after the chaos, and 19 per cent are of the opinion that the government is making mistakes, but it is too early for a final assessment.
On the other hand, about a third of people have more critical attitudes towards the current administration. Twenty-one per cent believe that the government seems unprepared, and 11 per cent accept the more serious accusation that this administration is not changing the model it said it would fight against when it came to power.
“That is, there is some hesitation regarding what this Cabinet and this administration can offer, but support for it is still dominant,” Zhivkov said.
“When new cabinets come in, usually the assessment of the direction of development becomes more positive. We should note that the great hopes and expectations for the work of the new cabinet, which began even before the elections with the announcement of the new formation, continue to exist,” he said.
“But in the past month, this upward trend has begun to take the form of a plateau, instead of continuing steeply upwards. That is, there is currently some slippage in public attitudes towards this administration.”
The poll found that were Bulgaria to hold parliamentary elections now, Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria would get 39.1 per cent from those who would vote, Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF 13.1 per cent, We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (which the pollsters counted as one, though the two sit in Parliament as separate groups) 11.8 per cent, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms 4.9 per cent and pro-Russian party Vuzrazhdane 4.2 per cent.
“We should even note that Progressive Bulgaria, albeit minimally, is increasing its support. This may seem paradoxical in a situation in which we see a decline in trust in both the Cabinet and the Prime Minister,” Zhivkov said.
The poll found that Delyan Peevski, the Magnitsky Act-sanctioned leader of the MRF, has a record high disapproval rating, at 90 per cent, and an approval rating of a mere six per cent.
The poll was funded and implemented jointbly by bTV and Market Links. It was done among 1005 individuals over the age of 18 in the country between June 13 and 21 of this year using direct personal interviews and an online survey.
(Photo of Radev: government.bg)
