The Agrokor case has still not had a significant impact on government’s popularity.
The regular monthly poll of the Promocija Plus agency on social and political preferences “CRO Demoskop” was conducted in the period between 1 and 3 April. As much as 71.6 percent of respondents said that the Agrokor case was the most important topic in the last month. Interestingly, this is the highest percentage for any event since the first such poll in January 2004. However, it seems that the issue has not had a substantial impact on government’s popularity, reports HRT on April 5, 2017.
Among political parties, the first place belongs to HDZ which is the choice of 31.3 percent of respondents (32.8 percent in March). However, this is the largest monthly decline in electoral support for the ruling party since the beginning of this term. At the same time, SDP has stopped its negative trend and is now supported by 22.8 percent of voters (21.6 percent in March). MOST is third with 9.6 percent (8 percent in March), followed by Živi Zid (7.1 percent), HNS (3.6 percent), HSS (2 percent), and smaller parties.
Asked who is the most positive Croatian politician, the plurality of respondents chose Prime Minister Andrej Plenković (21.8 percent). Second place was won by “no one”(14.6 percent), followed by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (10.7 percent), HNS candidate for Zagreb Mayor Anka Mrak Taritaš (9.7 percent), SDP president Davor Bernardić (5.2 percent), and Speaker of Parliament Božo Petrov (4.5 percent).
About 30.5 percent of respondents think that Croatia is moving in the right direction, while 60.8 percent say that country is on the wrong track. The HDZ voters are mostly optimistic (69.4 percent), much more so than MOST voters (42.1 percent).
The level of support for the policies and activities of the government in the sixth month of its term stands at 46.2 percent. In comparison, Prime Minister Milanović’s government had the support of 44.7 percent of respondents at the same point in its term.
On the 1-5 scale, in this month’s poll Andrej Plenković’s government received an average mark of 2.54 (2.56 in March). President Grabar-Kitarović received 3.0 (same as in March). The average mark for Parliament is 2.31 (2.25 in March).
Asked about the most important topic or event in March, the Agrokor case received as much as 71.6 percent of votes. The second placed is the problem of mass emigration from Croatia (9.3 percent). These two topics were followed by the campaign for local elections (2.2 percent), arguments between HDZ and MOST (2.1 percent), the decision of the Constitutional Court not to ban abortion (1.9 percent), and good economic indicators (1.8 percent).
