Bulgarian Socialists Close Ratings Gap with GERB - Poll

Politics » DOMESTIC | October 15, 2012, Monday // 17:05
Bulgaria: Bulgarian Socialists Close Ratings Gap with GERB - Poll The Head of Mediana polling agency, Kolio Kolev, says the approval of Bulgaria's ruling GERB is going down sharply. Photo by BGNES

The left-wing, opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, is closing the ratings gap with the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, less than one year until the next general election.

These are the results of a poll of the research agency Mediana, released Monday.

According to data collected at the beginning of October, the approval rating of GERB is down to 20.7%, compared to 24.6% in July, while for BSP the percentages are 20.6% and 19.6%, respectively.

In reality, Mediana's numbers are not that different from the ones in another recent poll, conducted by the Alfa Research Agency. There, the support for GERB in September was 21.4%, down from 22.3% in June. The discrepancy between the two polls is in the ratings of BSP – according to Alpha Research, approval for BSP is down to 16.1% in September, compared to 18.4% in June.

The Head of Mediana, Kolio Kolev, explains it with the September 29 election of BSP leader and former Prime Minister, Sergey Stanishev, as President of the Party of European Socialists, PES, which Kolev says dealt a heavy blow to GERB.

"GERB is sharply going down. Is this a crash or its beginning, or just a temporary crunch in people's love for the Prime Minister? We are yet to find out," Kolev noted, speaking for the Bulgarian Trud (Labor) daily.

According to him, GERB have already panicked over their crashing ratings in recent polls and this explains frequent talk lately about education, healthcare, culture, taming unemployment, increasing income and retirement pensions becoming the new priorities of the Cabinet.

Bulgaria for Citizens movement-turned-party of former European Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, is having 6.4% support; the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, has 4.9%; the far-right, nationalist Ataka – 2.7%; the right-wing Democrats for Strong Bulgaria – 2.3%.

The right-wing Union of Democratic Forces, UDF, currently in the Blue Coalition with DSB gest just 1.2%, while the marginal, conservative Order, Law and Justice, RZS – 1.1%.

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Tags: Boyko Borisov, Prime Minister, government, Cabinet, EU Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, election, GERB, DPS, BSP, Bulgaria for Citizens, Ataka, UDF, DSB, RZS, Mediana, Kolio Kolev, Alfa Research, Sergey Stanishev, PES

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