Bulgaria Ruling GERB Ratings Crash Further over Recent Scandals

The approval ratings of Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and his ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, have gone down even further, according to a recent poll.

The poll has been conducted by the Alfa Research Agency in January.

The slump in the approval is attributed mainly to the scandals with the election of a constitutional judge from the parliamentary quota, and the so-called "Dunes Gate" involving construction on sand dunes in a protected area near the historical Black Sea town of Nessebar.

42% of the respondents have marked the first one as the most alarming event, and 41% - the second.

In January, the share of those approving of the work of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, was down by 2% to 29%, while those disapproving were 39%.

In January support for GERB was down by 0.5% while the one for the main opposition, left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, was up 2%.

Since September 2012 until January 2013, the positive assessment of the work of the Cabinet went down by 2% as well – from 18% to 16%, while the negative one was 46%.

The only member of the Cabinet enjoying strong approval of their work is the Minister of Regional Development, Lilyana Pavlova, with 31%.

Among age groups, only in the one of people ages 35-50 the percentage of those who approve of the work of the Cabinet is higher than the one of those who disapprove. In the other age groups, the disapproval exceeds 50%.

According to the Alfa Research poll, the margin between BSP and GERB is getting narrower with 21% of the polled saying they will vote for GERB in the summer general election and 19% for BSP.

The other two political formations that will score seats in the next Parliament are the right-wing Bulgaria for Citizens of former EU Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS.

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