site.btaGallup Poll: 62% of Bulgarians Favour PM Borissov's Foreign Policy

Sofia, April 9 (BTA) - Sixty-two per cent of Bulgarians believe that Prime Minister Boyko Borissov is managing well this country's foreign policy, such as the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council and diplomacy. Thirty per cent, however, believe the opposite, while the rest are undecided, show data from a telephone poll on current topics, conducted by Gallup International April 3-4 among 801 adult Bulgarians. The poll is not dependent on external financing, the polling agency said.

The public clearly favours a balanced foreign policy, which is typical for Borissov, the agency said, giving as an example the public attitudes towards the talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which are favoured by sixty-two per cent of respondents, compared to 33 per cent who do not believe such talks should have been held.

Meanwhile, the public continues to expect much more efficient and firm actions against the problems in this country and especially corruption, Gallup International said. The prosecuting magistracy's recent actions in hospitals are met with 93 per cent approval. Radical stances, such as the one taken by Deputy PM Valeri Simeonov against the advertisement of gambling, also enjoy very high support - 71 per cent.

The majority of Bulgarians, 53 per cent, believe that currently there is a threat of a global military conflict. This equates to roughly 2.9 million adult Bulgarians out of the total 5.5 million permanent residents in this country. A total of 34 per cent of respondents (close to 1.9 million people) believe that it is rather likely (28 per cent), or very likely (6 per cent) that a global nuclear power will resort to using nuclear weapons in the next few years. Sixty-three per cent of respondents, however, do not expect a nuclear conflict. Fourty-four per cent of them believe this is unlikely while 19 per cent do not believe this will happen at all. The rest are undecided. In light of this, Bulgarians seem to favour more a balanced foreign policy. Meanwhile, however, they favour a much more uncompromising domestic policy, the agency said.