Support for Macedonia’s membership in NATO from 2021 is continuously increasing, making a cumulative positive difference of 5.9 percent and in absolute terms today it amounts to 65.7 percent, while 62.3 percent support the European integration of Macedonia, a result that is almost at the same level as the previous survey in 2022 when that support was 62.8 percent, shows a public opinion survey published Thursday by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, as part of the “International Challenges 2023” publication.

The survey was conducted at the end of May 2023 by the Institute for Political Research, on a sample size of 1.111 respondents.

“The publication aims to analyze the mood of the Macedonian public in relation to the most important challenges and to further clarify the movement trends of such mood through a chronological multi-year perspective based on the results obtained from previously conducted public opinion surveys issued by the foundation in 2021 and 2022 ‘30 Years of Independence’ and ‘30 Years of Foreign Policy and Defense’,” said the foundation.

On when Macedonia will join the EU, the largest group of respondents believes that it will never happen, i.e. 39.3 percent, thus compared to 2022, this group has grown by 11.3 percent, 14.9 percent believe that EU membership will be achieved in 10 years, 11.3 percent think that membership will happen in 10-20 years, 8.5 percent believe that it will happen in 5 years, while 18.1 percent said they don’t know, that is, they don’t have an answer.

According to the survey, 36.3 percent of respondents support the Prespa agreement with Greece, and 37.2 percent believe that this agreement has improved Macedonian-Greek relations, which compared to 2022 represents a growth of 6.6 percent.

“59 percent do not support the Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation Agreement with Bulgaria, which compared to 2021 represents a growth of 13.6 percent. At the same time, 67.3 percent believe that after the signing of this agreement Macedonian-Bulgarian relations worsened, which compared to 2022 represents a growth of 10.2 percent. 68 percent support the cooperation initiative between North Macedonia, Albania and Serbia ‘Open Balkans’, which compared to 2022 represents a growth of 2.3 percent,” show the results of the survey.

On questions about security, which refer to a wide range of external situations that affect the security situation in the country, 92.3 percent believe that organized crime represents the greatest threat to Macedonia, followed by potential new health epidemics that 84.9 percent of the respondents feel are a danger, fake news with 82.5 percent, hybrid threats from other countries with 79 percent, the influx of migrants with 76.4 percent and the return of fighters from foreign battlefields to the country, which 70.7 percent of respondents consider to be the greatest danger for Macedonia.

The Foundation said that when it comes to the respondents’ opinions on the quality of the country’s bilateral relations with select countries, Serbia is at the top, for which 88.1 percent believe has good relations with Macedonia, and Turkey, for which 84.3 percent believe has good relations with Macedonia. Next in the upper part of the table are Germany with 77.4 percent, Albania with 66.3 percent, Kosovo with 65.7 percent and the USA with 62.2 percent positive perceptions. At the bottom of the table are Bulgaria and Russia, for which only 18.3 percent and 16.5 percent consider that they have good bilateral relations with Macedonia.

Regarding the influence of select countries on the internal political, economic and security conditions in Macedonia, the respondents evaluated the influence of Turkey as the most positive with 58 percent positive impressions for the political, 66.1 percent for the economic and 60.3 percent for the security impact in Macedonia. Next on the table is the European Union with 38.7 percent positive impressions for the political, 41.6 percent for the economic and 41.2 percent for the security influence in Macedonia, third on this scale is the USA with 37 percent positive impressions for the political, 38.8 percent for the economic and 41 percent for the security influence in Macedonia. The penultimate place in the table belongs to China with 28.7 percent positive impressions for the political, 36.8 percent for the economic and 29.6 percent for the security influence in Macedonia. The respondents gave the least positive marks for the influence of Russia, with 17.5 percent positive impressions for the political, 18.9 percent for the economic and 18.2 percent for the security influence on Macedonia.

According to the survey, 53.7 percent of respondents evaluate the Russian military aggression against Ukraine as unjustified and unacceptable, against 29.3 percent who evaluated it as justified and acceptable, which represents a difference of 24.4 percent in favor of the first group. Compared to 2022, the number of respondents who believe that the Russian military aggression against Ukraine is unjustified and unacceptable has increased by 3.3 percent, but at the same time, the number of respondents who justify the aggression against Ukraine has increased by 3.1 percent. In this sense, said the Foundation, in contrast to last year’s survey, it can be concluded that today respondents have clearer views on the war in Ukraine because the increase in the first and second groups is at the expense of respondents who previously answered that they did not have an answer, that is, they do not know.