site.btaMajor Party in Ruling Coalition, Main Opposition Force Remain Tied-in in Political Attitudes Poll

October 19 (BTA) - After two consecutive months of falling public support in the main ruling party GERB and increase in the approval of the extra-parliamentary opposition, October saw stabilization of the levels from September, while GERB and the main opposition party in Parliament, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) remain tied-in, according to a Trend poll.

The poll was commissioned by the 24 Chassa newspaper and was conducted between October 3 and 10 in face-to-face interviews among 1,008 adult Bulgarians.

The results show that five parties would surely make it to Parliament if elections were held now - GERB (24.1 per cent), BSP (23.6 per cent), TV talk show anchor Slavi Trifonov's party (15.9 per cent), the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (10.2 per cent) and Democratic Bulgaria (8.8 per cent). Maya Manolova's civic formation and the United Patriots coalition (the minor partner in the ruling coalition) have a chance of entering the next National Assembly with 3.9 per cent and 3.8 per cent, respectively.

The survey did not establish any major fluctuations in the assessment of the work of the National Assembly, the government and the President.

Parliament continues to be the lowest assessed institution, with three thirds of the respondents assessing it negatively, and 14 per cent, positively.

A little over one fifth of the respondents in the poll assessed the work of the government in positive terms. The President is approved of by 48 per cent of the participants in the survey and disapproved by 39 per cent.

Since the start more than three months ago of the protest rallies which still continue, the people's assessment of the work of the court and the prosecuting magistracy has been falling steadily. Although the protests are against the government and the prosecuting magistracy, the assessment of the court suffers as well, as the court system is perceived as coupled with the prosecution office. Both institutions are assessed positively by a little over a fifth of the respondents and negatively, by more than 60 per cent.

The police had positive/negative assessments of 48 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively, before the start of the protests while in October the respective figures are 43 per cent and 45 per cent. No change is reported in the assessments of the Armed Forces.

The polling agency has been studying people's attitudes to the Covid-19 situation every month since the outbreak of the epidemic in March. The latest poll shows that after an initial calm following the easing of the early measures, people's fears are growing. In October more than two thirds of the Bulgarians think that the epidemic will continue to grow while no more than 15 per cent think it is subsiding. More people think that some of the initial measures need to be reinstated, but still half of the respondents in the poll are against such reinstatement. RI/ZH//