While Andrej and Kolinda spend time refusing to see eye to eye on key matters, the public loses their already weak confidence in the pair…
As Index writes on the 23rd of June, 2018, the President of the Republic of Croatia isn’t doing too well, according to public opinion. Now, her work itself receives 46 percent of public support, with 45 percent of those asked saying they aren’t in support of her actions. Only nine percent claim they don’t know how they feel.
It would appear that Kolinda has been losing out on public support for around five months now, losing exactly 10 percent of the support she once had. HDZ on the other hand, for all the negativity the name often conjures up, still enjoys support at 80 percent. As for other parties, the president’s work is backed by 25 percent of SDP voters, 53 percent of MOST voters and 40 percent of Živi zid voters.
Should she be worried? It would seem so, yes.
The president is gradually losing the support of her voters, and the elections are coming, there are naturally reasons for concern. And when she sees her predecessor standing in the same mandate, and where she is now, she could change something. Ivo Josipovic had 71 percent of the citizens who approved his work during the same period of his mandate. When it comes to popularity, 81 percent of citizens had a positive impression on 2013.
Who are the most popular politicians?
On the other hand and aside from her work, the president herself is still the most popular among the rest of the country’s top political figures, (which may or may not be much to shout about) with 59 percent holding a positive view of her, and 33 percent holding a negative one.
Second place is taken by the young Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, about whom 46 percent of the public hold a positive impression, and 39 percent hold a negative one, but much like the president, he too has been slowly losing out on the popularity vote for the past five or so months.
MOST’s Božo Petrov continues to divide public opinion, with 44 percent of them having a positive impression of him, and 42 percent holding a negative view.
Andrej Plenković is currently riding a wave of a hardly encouraging positive impression from just 35 percent of the public, as opposed to 54 percent having a negative opinion of him and his way of running the government, marking his absolute worst rating to date.
SDP’s Davor Bernardić is also losing out rapidly, with 54 percent of citizens having a negative impression, with a 25 percent of them believing him to be a positive political figure, marking his second worst result when it comes to public opinion of him. As far as SDP as a party is concerned, the most popular seems to be Anka Mrak Taritaš.
Just as expected, there is no major change when it comes to HDZ voters themselves, who are typically old school in their voting patterns. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović is the most popular with 88 percent support, followed by Andrej Plenković, with 87 percent support, and finally, Zagreb’s longtime and controversial mayor, Milan Bandić, who is miraculously the first choice of 64 percent of HDZ voters.
SDP voters, if asked, would have chosen the popular Anka Mrak Taritaš, with a 75 percent support. Then there is Davor Bernardić, enjoying 55 percent support, and Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, who is considered to be a positive political figure by 49 percent of SDP voters.
The IPSOS agency conducted the research for Dnevnik Nova TV between the 1st and the 20th of the month, on a sample of 975 adult citizens from all over Croatia.
