The Macedonian citizens are against the inscription of the Bulgarians into the Macedonian Constitution, despite this being a main condition for the country to commence its membership negotiations with the EU, the last public opinion survey revealed.

The survey was conducted by the Institute for Political Researches from Skopje, by order of the TV Sitel political show Detector, from May 2 until May 6, on a sample of 1,112 respondents.

According to the survey, 56.1% of the citizens think that the Constitution should not be amended in order to continue the negotiations with the EU. Only 27.5% of the respondents think positively of the constitutional amendments.

Most of those who support the amendments are ethnic Albanians: up to 79.3% of the ethnic Albanians support the inscription of Bulgarians, while 72.4% of the ethnic Macedonians are against it. Mere 11.2% of the Macedonians support the amendments, while the huge discrepancy between the Macedonians and Albanians is even more obvious in the fact that only 8.8% of the Albanians are against the amendments.

The vast majority of the citizens also expect that the largest opposition party VMRO-DPMNE will remain consistent in its refusal t support the amendments. 42% of the respondents share this opinion, while 25% think that VMRo-DPMNE will eventually give in.

And finally, the survey reveals that 57.9% of ethnic Macedonians are against the constitutional amendments even if the EU agrees to convey additional guarantees that this will be the last Bulgarian demand. Only 21.9% of the respondents would support the amendments in such a case. Staying within the trend, 78.5% of the ethnic Albanians would give their support, and only 7.7% of the Macedonians.