A significant proportion of the citizenry think that the Balkan country will not be a European Union member. Only a third of the population believes that the country will at some point be a part of the EU.

The population and the government don’t always see eye to eye

A survey published by the North Macedonian portal MKD.mk has revealed that 33.8 per cent of the people believe the country will gain membership in the EU, while 55.7 per cent say that this will never happen. It comes as little surprise that a shrinking number of people believe in the success of the process, because it has been progressing extremely slowly. Skopje applied for EU membership in March 2004 and was granted candidate status in December 2005. The EU held its first intergovernmental conference with North Macedonia more than a decade and a half later, in July 2022.

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The accession of the Balkan country has been blocked by Bulgaria. As V4NA reported earlier, the Skopje government last year accepted the French proposal which aimed to remove the Bulgarian veto blocking accession talks. As part of the solution, Skopje must amend the country’s constitution and grant more rights to the Bulgarian minority.

The population, however, seems to be at odds with this decision. Only around 20 per cent of Macedonians support the inclusion of Bulgarians’ rights in the country’s constitution, which is a basic requirement by Brussels before the country can open new accession chapters. About half of the population, 48.7 per cent, oppose such a change to the constitution. The survey, however, also suggests that some of those who oppose could relatively easily be persuaded to change their minds. In fact, 42 per cent would be willing to accept such an amendment to the constitution if the European Union provided firm guarantees for the preservation of the Macedonian language and identity.

Only 1 in 10 think the country is headed in the right direction

Besides being increasingly sceptical about the European path of the country, Macedonians are also dissatisfied with the work of their own government.

According to the survey conducted in the first few days of February,

almost two-thirds, or 62.3 per cent, of the people believe that things are not going well in North Macedonia. By contrast, only 1 out of 10 people believe that the country is progressing in the right direction and almost a quarter, 24 per cent, think the country is stagnating at best.

The majority of the people, 51 per cent, are of the opinion that currently the biggest problem in North Macedonia is the decline of the country’s economic performance. Citizens are pessimistic about their own situation and future.

According to the survey, only 20 per cent of respondents expect their standard of living to rise in the near future. By contrast, two-thirds of the citizenry have a very negative outlook, and do not expect any improvement in this respect.

Macedonians are also dissatisfied with the country’s legal system and its operation. 21.4 per cent of the respondents say that corruption and crime are also a major problem.