Ratings of Bulgaria's Ruling GERB Crash by 15% Y/Y - Poll

Bulgarian PM, Boyko Borisov (front) and President, Georgi Parvanov, now have the same approval rating, according to a recent poll. Photo by BGNES

Support for Bulgaria's ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party continues to go down - 3% on monthly basis and 15% on year on year.

The data comes from the latest poll of Gallup International, conducted between March 10 and 17, among 1 005 Bulgarians.

If parliamentary elections were to be held now, less than 25% would vote for GERB; 18% would vote for of the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) – an increase of 5% compared to one year ago; the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) would get 6%, which is unchanged; 3% would vote for the far-right, nationalist Ataka party; 4% - for the Blue Coalition. All other parties are below 1% while 1% would vote for the conservative Order, Law and Justice (RZS).

Approval for Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, is down 5 points to 24%; the one of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, remains the same. The Bulgarian EU Commissioner, Kristalina Georgieva, is now number one among Bulgarian politicians with 60% approval. Bulgarian President, Georgi Parvanov, has the same approval rating as Borisov – 39%.

The approval of Bulgaria's first EU Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, is up, reaching 38%; so is the one of Regional Minister, Rosen Plevneliev - 38% again, followed by the Mayor of Sofia, Iordanka Fandakova, with 30%; Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov, with 27%; Foreign Affairs Minister, Nikolay Mladenov with 24%; the BSP leader and former PM, Sergey Stanishev, with 21%; the Speaker of the Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva, with 20%; former Education Minister, Daniel Valchev, with 18%; Energy and Economy Minister, Traicho Traikov, also with 18%.

The majority of Bulgarians see the economy being in bad state, which is worsening along with their income – 62% say their living standard is down, compared to last year, while 32% see it as the same, and only 2% have noticed an improvement; 44% expect it to worsen in the future; 31% believe it would remain the same and 11% are optimistic.

86% of Bulgarians expect new price hikes; 50% forecast increased unemployment; 65% believe the entire country is going from bad to worse, and only 18% are optimistic.

Experts say this is a situation of frustration with very high levels of anxiety among all social groups.