The number of people in favour of Serbia joining the European Union saw a slight rise, with 33% saying they would back the idea if a referendum were held today, Demostat’s latest public opinion survey shows, yet the numbers are still lowest in the region by a significant margin.
According to the same survey, 33% would also vote against Serbia’s entry, while 17% said they would not vote in a possible referendum. Another 17% said they did not know or had no opinion on the matter.
In a previous survey from December last year, with a sample the size of the city of Belgrade, 30% said they were in favour of Serbia joining, while 31% opposed it. And almost 40% did not know or did not answer the question.
For Serbia as a whole, the new survey points to a perfect 33-33 split, even though it is only Belgrade that is traditionally more pro-European than the rest of Serbia.
We can state that there has been a slight increase in those who declare themselves in favour of the EU, says the Demostat researcher Milomir Mandić, pointing to figures for Belgrade now being more than 30%.
However, the slight growth is encouraging in current times, Mandic said, referring to the dominant government narrative not being so pro-European – which is also the case for public media service RTS and “other televisions with a national frequency.”
In comparison, 95.5% of Albanians are in favour of joining the EU, along with 94% of Kosovo citizens, 76% of Bosnia and Herzegovinans, and 74% of Macedonians, according to similar recent polls.
(Milena Antonijević | EURACTIV.rs)
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