'Trend': 43% of Bulgarians Expect a Successful EU Presidency

3/4 of GERB's sympathizers believe that Bulgaria is prepared for the event, the opposite opinion dominates among the supporters of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, shows a poll of 24chasa.

A little over three quarters (76%) of the citizens in our country are of the opinion , that the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU is important for Bulgaria. This is one of the conclusions of the Trend research study, commissioned by the 24chasa newspaper, dedicated to the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The survey is representative of the adult population of the country and was conducted among 1003 adult Bulgarian citizens through the face-to-face method. The survey was conducted between 1 and 10 December 2017.

85% of Bulgarians know that Bulgaria has been chairing the Council of the European Union since January 1, 2018. Traditionally, for this type of information, the youngest (18-29) are the least informed, and here is no exception - nearly a quarter of all in this age group declare that they have not heard about the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the European Union. On the other hand, among the people living in the capital, practically all (99%) are informed. To a great extent, this is related to the fact that Sofia hosts the event and the preparation for the presidency was related to renovation works of the NPC, reconstruction and building of key infrastructural projects. Moreover, much of the information campaign for the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union is most pronounced in the capital. A little over three-quarters of respondents (76%) are of the opinion that the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU is important for Bulgaria. There is no significant dynamics in the data between different demographic groups.

Overall, there is a consensus on the importance of the Bulgarian Presidency. Only people with primary and lower education have high values ​​in the "do not know / can not judge" option, largely due to the fact that they are not sufficiently aware of the nature of the event and therefore can hardly assess its importance. On the question of Bulgaria's preparedness for the events, however, public opinion is far less explicit. 37% of the respondents believe that our country is prepared for the presidency, while 28% are of the opposite opinion. Among the hosts living in the city there is no difference compared to the general picture - 40% of the residents in the capital are of the opinion that Bulgaria is prepared for the presidency and 26% are the opposite.

In demographic breakdowns, it is noticeable that the GERB and BSP supporters differ strongly in their position as to whether Bulgaria is prepared or not for the presidency of the EU Council. More than three quarters of GERB's sympathizers believe that Bulgaria is prepared, while among the BSP supporters dominated the opinion that we are not prepared. It is clear from the data that the opposition attacks in recent months on the poor preparation of our country for the presidency of the Council of the European Union have resulted in their sympathizers. The expectations for the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU are rather optimistic. 43% of all Bulgarian citizens are of the opinion that it will be successful, while 18% think it will fail. Here again, there are serious differences between GERB and BSP electors, and quite logically the GERB supporters are the most optimistic about the success of the Bulgarian presidency, while the Socialist supporters are much more reserved, although they are more prevalent estimates that the Presidency will be successful.

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