A poll conducted by the Institute for political research Skopje, for Sitel TVs Detektor show, found that 56 percent of the citizens are opposed to amending the Constitution in line with the Bulgarian demands, while only 27.5 percent are in favor.
Of the 27.5 percent, majority are ethnic Albanians who generally support asking ethnic Macedonians to make further concessions with their national identity. Almost 80 percent of ethnic Albanians agree to the latest Bulgarian request. On the other side, 72.4 percent of ethnic Macedonians are opposed to amending the Constitution. Even when the question predicted that Macedonia is given some sort of guarantees for the country’s EU integration, 57.9 percent of ethnic Macedonians remain opposed to the idea.
Bulgaria wants Macedonia to include the Bulgarian minority in its Constitution, even though it refuses to recognize its own Macedonian minority, and prevents the opening of Macedonian cultural centers or establishment of Macedonian parties.
In another question, 71 percent of ethnic Macedonians believe that the amendments would have negative effect on the country, while only 31 percent of Albanians agree. Only 11 percent of Macedonians say that the Bulgarian demands will have no negative effect on Macedonia.
When asked whether the main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE will remain firm and reject the Bulgarian demands, 42 percent of the citizens say yes, while 25 percent expect VMRO to change its position. VMRO is the only political force preventing the change as the ruling majority doesn’t have the votes to amend the Constitution.
The poll was conducted on 1,112 citizens, between May 2nd and 6th.
Comments are closed for this post.