Vucic and his SNS most popular in Serbia, support for EU membership dropping (N1, Beta)
The ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), headed by the country's president as the most popular leader, will have the greatest voters’ support if an early election is held now, while the enthusiasm for the country's EU membership shrinks and Kosovo is "very important" to less than a half of those covered by an opinion poll published on Thursday.
The survey carried by the Factor plus agency from November 17 to 26 covering 1,250 people showed that 53 of them would support the SNS, while over 14 percent would trust the opposition Alliance for Serbia (SzS). The Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), the SNS main coalition party, could count on 9.6 percent of the votes, while the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) would not pass the five percent threshold with 4.5 percent of support.
“The SzS is positioned as an alternative to the regime. They still don’t have a precise programme to attract people to, which is not a bad tactic, but I think they should be more courageous in expressing stands about the key state’s issues,” Vladimir Pejic, the agency manager said.
The survey showed the head of the SNS and Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic as the most popular politician with 57 percent of support and 4.2 marks for his work, while Bosko Obradovic, who leads the nationalist Dveri movement, a part of the SzS coalition, was at the bottom of the popularity list.
At the same time, the burning Kosovo issue, the main Vucic’s topic, would be significant to 43 percent of those who would vote, while for 30 percent it would mean something, but not much.
Less than a half, 48 percent, said they believed Belgrade and Pristina would not sign any agreement, 36 percent thought some deal would be made, while 56 percent said they saw the frozen conflict as the best solution.
Without an agreement with Kosovo, 42 percent of the polled believed Serbia would face economic isolation, while 26 percent saw war as the consequence of no deal.
The support for Serbia’s European Union membership is low, only 34 percent, drastically dropping from 55 percent in the August 2018 survey by the Ministry of European Integrations.
According to the Factor plus’ opinion poll, 37 percent believed the country would join later than in 2025 which was a tentative deadline set by the EU, and 33 percent said they thought Serbia would never become an EU member state.
The survey showed 30 percent of the pollees expected an early general election which has been speculated about for some time. Even Vucic hasn’t ruled out the possibility.
However, only 42 percent of those covered by the poll said they would vote, and 28 percent decided not to go to the polling stations.
Over half of the polled citizens, 55 percent, said they did not feel any financial benefits from the economic reforms which had been praised by both the regime and the EU.