The IRI poll of five Balkan countries, that was published yesterday, revealed shocking data about the state of democracy in Macedonia.

Macedonia ranks tied with famously dysfunctional Bosnia in how badly the citizens perceive the state of their democracy. All other countries whose citizens were polled by IRI – Serbia, Montenegro, even Kosovo – had far better response from the citizens. One of the most shocking slidees in the poll, which was conducted in February, was how free speech is in Macedonia. Two thirds of respondents said that are very afraid (23%) or somewhat afraid (42%) of freely expressing their opinion. Only 8 percent said that they are very free to speak out, and 15 percent replied that they are somewhat free.

This reply, and others covering the state of Macedoniani democracy, caused outrage in the public, with many prominent commentators sharing them on their social media accounts as evidence that things have taken a very bad turn in the country.

Another extremely worrying slide showed that only 17 percent of Macedonians believe that young people have a good future in the country, while 81 percent think that their future here is bleak. And 61 percent said that the country is heading in the wrong direction, as opposed to just 33 percent who are satisfied with where Macedonia is headed.