Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov Enjoys Public Support of 64% - Poll

Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, enjoys the highest public support of all political figures in the country, according to a recent poll of the MBMD sociological agency.

Borisov has the approval of 63,6% at the end of October 2009, which is a notable increase compared to 43,8% in May 2009 before Bulgaria’s EU and Parliamentary Elections, said the MBMD Director, Miroslava Radeva.

The poll which was dedicated to the end of the first 100-day period of the Borisov cabinet found that the government as a whole enjoyed the support of 52% of the Bulgarians, whereas 40% of them don’t trust it.

This is contrasted with the trust of only 19,6% for the Stanishev government in May 2009. Radeva said the public support for the Stanishev government after its first 100 days in 2005 was 34%, whereas the support for Sergey Stanishev himself at that time was 52%.

The most popular of Borisov’s Ministers are Interior head Tsvetan Tsvetanov with 51,6%, Education Minister and Sofia Mayor candidate Yordanka Fandakova – 48,4%, and Diaspora Minister Bozhidar Dimitrov – 45,8%. Environment Minister Nona Karadzhova has the lowest public approval 29,9%.

According to the MBMD poll, on a scale of 2 to 6, 2 being the fail grade, the average mark that the Bulgarians give to the first 100 days of the Borisov government is 3,8. Radeva has explained this with the economic crisis and the low income of the people.

22% have said that the anti-corruption moves of the Borisov government are its most important measures; 10% believe these is the improvement of EU funds absorption; another 10% point to the revision of the activities of the former government; only 7% mention the anti-crisis moves.

Almost half of the respondents have said they approved the revision of the former cabinet, with 11% being certain that ex-Ministers will be sentenced for their violations.

Only 8% have said they had strong interest in the scandals around the National Security Agency DANS, while 33% say they are not interested at all. Only 6% believe that the GERB government has taken enough anti-crisis measures.

10% of the Bulgarians favor early elections so that Borisov can gain a full majority in the Parliament, whereas 78% think he has sufficiently stable Parliamentary support.

Radeva said the GERB party itself had the support of 45% of the voters, the Bulgarian Socialist Party – 11%, the ethnic Turkish party DPS – 7%, the Blue Coalition – 4%. In her words, if there were early elections now, the GERB party would get 147 seats in the 240-seat Parliament, the BSP would have 35 seats, the DPS – 24, the nationalist Ataka party – 14, the Blue Coalition – 12, the conservatives from the RZS – 9.

The support for Bulgaria's Socialist President, Georgi Parvanov, remains high at 49%.

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