>If a referendum for Serbia’s entry into the European Union were held tomorrow, 34 percent of citizens would vote for, but only 17 percent think that certain concessions should be made due to progress towards the EU, while 51 percent of respondents are against joining the EU presenting the results of Demostat research.
>Demostat researcher Srecko Mihailovic stated at the presentation of the research “Foreign Policy Orientation of Serbian Citizens” that 58 percent of respondents believe that Serbia should not harmonize its foreign policy with the EU, while 33 percent believe that Serbia should do so.
>When asked what the government in Serbia should do, 43 percent of the respondents think that they should refuse Serbia’s entry into the EU, and 30 percent that they should accept Serbia’s entry into the EU.
>When asked whether Serbia should be classified in one of the two global world blocs, 40 percent of the respondents believe that Serbia must decide, and 37 percent that it does not have to choose one of the two blocs.
>Mihailović stated that 81% of the respondents believe that Serbia must preserve its neutrality at all costs, and 80% say that it should not impose sanctions on Russia.
>Answering the question who is responsible for the current situation in Ukraine, seven percent of the respondents mentioned Russia, three percent think that Russia is more responsible than Ukraine, 17 percent think that NATO is more responsible for the situation, and 54 percent think that NATO is exclusively responsible.
>If parliamentary elections were held next week, not counting coalitions, almost half of the respondents would vote for the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, Mihailovic said, while the Party of Freedom and Justice would get 10 percent and the Socialist Party of Serbia nine percent.
>When it comes to politicians, 46 percent of the respondents have the most trust in Aleksandar Vučić, six percent each trust Zdravko Ponos and Ivica Dačić the most, and 27 percent of the respondents do not trust any politician.
>Of the world leaders, respondents have the best opinion of Vladimir Putin (45 percent), Xi Jinping (12 percent) and Emanuel Macron (11 percent).
>Of the leaders in the region, the largest number of respondents have the best opinion of Viktor Orban (37 percent) and Milorad Dodik (28 percent).
>For the citizens of Serbia, the closest peoples in the area are Montenegrins (34 percent of respondents) and Macedonians (24 percent), and the least close are Albanians (four percent).
>The research was conducted between June 13 and 22, and 1,203 citizens participated in it.
The most important foreign policy partners of Serbia
Russia 40%, EU 30%, China 24%, Others 2%, Don’t know 4%
World leaders about whom the citizens of Serbia have the best opinion
Putin 45% (Russia), No good opinion/don’t know 19%, Xi Jinping 12% (China), Macron 11% (France), Scholz 5% (Germany), Erdogan 3% (Turkey), Draghi 3% (Italy), Others 2%
The countries that have given the most aid to Serbia in the last 10 years
EU 35%, Russia 26%, China 22%, Don’t know 9%, USA/Germany 3%, Others 3%
Data by OSCE? (2010-2015) in $: 1. EU – 4.67 billions 2. UAE – 1 billions 3. Germany – 905 millions 4. Japan – 400 millions 5. USA – 203 millions ; 6. Switzerland – 122 millions 7. Sweden – 106 millions * No data for Russia, Turkey…
Countries that are seen as biggest investors in Serbia in the last 10 years
EU 36%, China 34%, Russia 19%, Germany 10%, Others 1%
National Bank of Serbia (2010-2019): EU 70%, Russia 9%, China 3% (Chinese investements are growing since 2018.)
Should Serbia harmonize its foreign policy with the European Union?
No 56%, Yes 33%, Don’t know 11%
What should the government do for Serbia to progress: to accept or refuse to join the EU?
Refuse to join EU 43%, Join the EU 20%, Something in between 25%, Don’t know 2%
If there was a referendum on Serbia’s entry into the EU tomorrow, how would you vote?
Against 51%, For 34%, Wouldn’t vote 11%, Don’t know 4%
What should the government do for Serbia to progress: to refuse the recognition of Kosovo or to make concessions with certain concessions
Don’t recognise Kosovo 64%, Some concessions 17%, Something in between 19%
Do you agree with the position: “There is no place for desires and feelings in foreign policy, politics is a matter of interest”?
Yes 78%, Neutral 14%, No 8%
Do you agree with the position: Between values and interests, interests should be chosen”?
Yes 44%, No 34%, Neutral 22%
Do you agree with the position: “Today the world is divided into two blocs and Serbia must decide on either side”?
Yes 40% No 37%, Neutral/don’t know 23%
Should Serbia preserve its neutrality at all costs?
Yes 81%, No 10%, Neutral/don’t know 9%
Should Serbia impose sanctions on Russia?
No 80%, Neutral/don’t know 11%, Yes 9%
Who’s guilty for the situation in Ukraine?
NATO 54%, NATO and Russia 17%, More NATO than Russia 12%, Russia 7%, Don’t know 7%, More Russia than NATO 3%,
Politicians in Serbia they trust
Vučić 46% (current populist president, Serbian Orban) | No one/doesn’t know 27% | Ponoš (right leaning ex-candidate for president, kinda pro-EU)/Dačić (pro-russian, ex PM and ex minister) 6% | Others 5% | Jovanović (pro-russian candidate for president) 4%, Đilas (one of the leaders of opposition, pro-EU, left leaning)/Đurđ.-Stamenk. (Far-right, pro-russian pres. candidate) 3%
Opinion of authors, Google Translated:
12. The attitude of public opinion towards Serbia’s entry into the EU is the same as the attitude of the government and its media towards the EU
> The attitude of citizens towards the European Union is under the pressure of “genetic” emotions that have been built during the history of this nation, then under the pressure of government (Vučić’s) policy and media policy that are under the control of the government; but also under the pressure of the politics of a significant part of the opposition parties and one part of the intellectual elite. The confusion in that relationship with the EU was created with the intention and belief that it could be cleared up, if necessary. In the subtext of the policy pursued by the mentioned subjects, we find the attitude: “We want to join the EU, but under our conditions” or “We want to join the EU, but nothing should change here” or “If you want us, we are here, as we are.” All in all, it somehow turns out that we are accepting the European Union into our Balkans, and they are not accepting us into Europe! ”
22. Conclusion
> In the political arena in which Serbia wanted or did not want to find itself, four actors dominate: Russia, the European Union, America and China. In the perception of the political arena and its actors, the citizens of Serbia mostly problematize only Russia and the European Union, China is a recent “player”, while America is either in the shadows or is perceived as a player acting through the European Union.
> Russia is seen as the country of the people closest to Serbia (40%), as the most important foreign policy partner of Serbia (40%), Putin is the leader on whom Serbian citizens have the best opinion (45%), Russia is in second place in terms of grants (26%), Russia ranks third in terms of investment in Serbia. The European Union is the first in terms of volume of investments in Serbia (36%) and in terms of the volume of non-refundable aid to Serbia (35%), the European Union is Serbia’s second foreign policy partner (after Russia) – 30%, Serbia needs to harmonize its foreign policy with the EU %), Serbia should accept EU accession (30%), ie refuse it (43%); 34% of Serbian citizens would say YES in a possible referendum, and 51% NO to the European Union.
> Despite knowing the facts and accepting interest as a criterion in international politics, the citizens of Serbia give priority to emotions in thinking about foreign policy, which then so colors the perception of international relations that in many cases we can not talk about rational preferences. Public opinion views on foreign policy are colored by emotions and marked by confusion of views and contradictory views on what is happening in the circle in which Serbia found itself.
Bad news
You don’t need EU guys, don’t worry.
[deleted]
Good, don’t need another Hungary
Well, I am against them joining, so there is that.
That’s fine. Their people, their choice after all.
based, kosovo je srbija
Good fuck off
Well you are in luck, nobody will force you to join.
Im among 51%. Nothings against EU, its just for me personally in the simplest words possible; EU and western coalition doesnt care about us and humiliate us at every turn, EU citizens have predominantly negative opinions about us as this subreddit demonstrates daily, blatantly rubbing us dirty about Kosovo at every turn. Not to mention we are listening about EU and the future from 2003-2004. So all in all, for me there is no mutual respect. We should focus on dealing on our inner problems and maybe somewhere down the road we might conjointly come to the same conclusion. As it stands, would vote for no in a heartbeat.
I struggle to find words for how crazy some of the opinions from this survey seem to me. Sometimes I feel Bulgaria is crazy and hopeless but Serbian public opinion seems an order of magnitude worse.
I don’t know how you chart a positive democratic future (which Serbia dearly needs) starting from such a standpoint. The majority is enamoured with dictators and dictatorships while feeling disdainful towards the countries it should follow.
That’s fine, not every country has to be in the EU.
That’s fine, right about now most of Europe also wouldn’t want Serbia to join.
Didn’t expect much anyways they are too Russia friendly
With the answers to the other question I am glad they don’t want to join. They might as well be Russian with their apparent love for dictators.
No free money for them. I think people really forgot the benefits from the EU.
we europeans are not sorry about that. as far as i am concerned they can join russia… we will definetely not miss them. in the process they can take also hungary with them
Finally some good news coming out of Serbia. We don’t need them in the EU.
Yeeeeeeah !!! another country my taxe money won’t go and be used to enrich their corrupt leader. Damn I wish Hungary and Poland has done the same back in the days. Thanks Serbia.
Serbia will never join soon anyway. They just pretend they want to join cause they are getting money from the EU for certain projects.
They would need to recognise Kosovo before joining and we all know that’ll never happen.
EU can probably do without yet another rabidly anti-western member state that votes against common interests just so their local populist leaders can show that they “stuck it to those progressives and bureaucrats in Brussels”.
Who would have thought dropping Uranium bombs would impact the vote into joining the EU.?
Surprised Pikachu face lmao
Good for the Serbs
That’s fine, democracy has spoken
tbh the eu has been very pushy when it comes to serbia and kosovo and sanctioning russia. that pushiness is a huge detriment for the relations between the people and the eu. due in no small part to the government controlled media and vucic’s “neutral” stance. they are portraying eu as this organization which wants to push serbia away from “serbian historical morals” (ie kosovo, friendship with russia, anti-nato agenda).
i wouldnt blame the people entirely, a lot of serbs are still stuck in this vicious loop of reading the same pro-sns tabloids and falling for propaganda. i think the eu needs take a much more subtle approach, much like what they’re doing in novi sad right now, if they want to rein in serbia
Great, stay out then! They have to decide tho. 100% EU or 100% Russia’s little puppet.
The price of EU letting Vucic rule by iron fist and recognizing his goverment will be heavily payed both by us Serbs and EU.
Fine, then don’t join
You can freetrade with UK instead if that suits you better 😉.
Then don’t
lets not bash them, they have huge issues with propaganda and its how their politicians are getting votes. We should look into how to help Serbia disassemble it’s propaganda machine (state run media) and everything else will sort itself out eventually. Recognition of Kosovo should still be mandatory though. Spain, Slovakia, Greece, Cyprus, and Hungary should all recognize Kosovo, as well
Orban malding rn
Well then don’t. What’s newsworthy about rhis?
Welp, time to take their candidate status away and cut the money off.
Ok, no worries.
That’s too bad, been there, some really nice people. But if we don’t share the same value there is no point and we better improve the current Eu before we introduce any other country anyway.
39 comments
Google translated:
>If a referendum for Serbia’s entry into the European Union were held tomorrow, 34 percent of citizens would vote for, but only 17 percent think that certain concessions should be made due to progress towards the EU, while 51 percent of respondents are against joining the EU presenting the results of Demostat research.
>Demostat researcher Srecko Mihailovic stated at the presentation of the research “Foreign Policy Orientation of Serbian Citizens” that 58 percent of respondents believe that Serbia should not harmonize its foreign policy with the EU, while 33 percent believe that Serbia should do so.
>When asked what the government in Serbia should do, 43 percent of the respondents think that they should refuse Serbia’s entry into the EU, and 30 percent that they should accept Serbia’s entry into the EU.
>When asked whether Serbia should be classified in one of the two global world blocs, 40 percent of the respondents believe that Serbia must decide, and 37 percent that it does not have to choose one of the two blocs.
>Mihailović stated that 81% of the respondents believe that Serbia must preserve its neutrality at all costs, and 80% say that it should not impose sanctions on Russia.
>Answering the question who is responsible for the current situation in Ukraine, seven percent of the respondents mentioned Russia, three percent think that Russia is more responsible than Ukraine, 17 percent think that NATO is more responsible for the situation, and 54 percent think that NATO is exclusively responsible.
>If parliamentary elections were held next week, not counting coalitions, almost half of the respondents would vote for the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, Mihailovic said, while the Party of Freedom and Justice would get 10 percent and the Socialist Party of Serbia nine percent.
>When it comes to politicians, 46 percent of the respondents have the most trust in Aleksandar Vučić, six percent each trust Zdravko Ponos and Ivica Dačić the most, and 27 percent of the respondents do not trust any politician.
>Of the world leaders, respondents have the best opinion of Vladimir Putin (45 percent), Xi Jinping (12 percent) and Emanuel Macron (11 percent).
>Of the leaders in the region, the largest number of respondents have the best opinion of Viktor Orban (37 percent) and Milorad Dodik (28 percent).
>For the citizens of Serbia, the closest peoples in the area are Montenegrins (34 percent of respondents) and Macedonians (24 percent), and the least close are Albanians (four percent).
>The research was conducted between June 13 and 22, and 1,203 citizens participated in it.
Research: [Demostat: Foreign-political orientations of the citizens of Serbia (PDF in Serbian)](https://demostat.rs/sr/vesti/istrazivanja/spoljno-politicke-orijentacije-gradana-srbije/1512)
My TLDR:
“Closest” nations in the region:
Montenegrins 34%, Macedonians 27%, Bosniaks 21%, Hungarians 20%, Croats 14%, Romanians 11%, Slovenians 9%, Bulgarians 8%, Albanians 4%.
Positive view of regional leaders:
Orban 37% (Hungary), Dodik 28% (BiH), Doesn’t have a positive view of any leader 17%, Pahor 5% (Slovenia), Don’t know 5%, Milanović 3% (Croatia), Pendarovski 2% (N. Macedonia), Others 3%
“Closest” nations in Europe
Russians 40%, Others 15%, Greeks 9%, Don’t know 9%, Germans/French 8%, Italiians/Hungarians 6%
The most important foreign policy partners of Serbia
Russia 40%, EU 30%, China 24%, Others 2%, Don’t know 4%
World leaders about whom the citizens of Serbia have the best opinion
Putin 45% (Russia), No good opinion/don’t know 19%, Xi Jinping 12% (China), Macron 11% (France), Scholz 5% (Germany), Erdogan 3% (Turkey), Draghi 3% (Italy), Others 2%
The countries that have given the most aid to Serbia in the last 10 years
EU 35%, Russia 26%, China 22%, Don’t know 9%, USA/Germany 3%, Others 3%
Data by OSCE? (2010-2015) in $: 1. EU – 4.67 billions 2. UAE – 1 billions 3. Germany – 905 millions 4. Japan – 400 millions 5. USA – 203 millions ; 6. Switzerland – 122 millions 7. Sweden – 106 millions * No data for Russia, Turkey…
Countries that are seen as biggest investors in Serbia in the last 10 years
EU 36%, China 34%, Russia 19%, Germany 10%, Others 1%
National Bank of Serbia (2010-2019): EU 70%, Russia 9%, China 3% (Chinese investements are growing since 2018.)
Should Serbia harmonize its foreign policy with the European Union?
No 56%, Yes 33%, Don’t know 11%
What should the government do for Serbia to progress: to accept or refuse to join the EU?
Refuse to join EU 43%, Join the EU 20%, Something in between 25%, Don’t know 2%
If there was a referendum on Serbia’s entry into the EU tomorrow, how would you vote?
Against 51%, For 34%, Wouldn’t vote 11%, Don’t know 4%
What should the government do for Serbia to progress: to refuse the recognition of Kosovo or to make concessions with certain concessions
Don’t recognise Kosovo 64%, Some concessions 17%, Something in between 19%
Do you agree with the position: “There is no place for desires and feelings in foreign policy, politics is a matter of interest”?
Yes 78%, Neutral 14%, No 8%
Do you agree with the position: Between values and interests, interests should be chosen”?
Yes 44%, No 34%, Neutral 22%
Do you agree with the position: “Today the world is divided into two blocs and Serbia must decide on either side”?
Yes 40% No 37%, Neutral/don’t know 23%
Should Serbia preserve its neutrality at all costs?
Yes 81%, No 10%, Neutral/don’t know 9%
Should Serbia impose sanctions on Russia?
No 80%, Neutral/don’t know 11%, Yes 9%
Who’s guilty for the situation in Ukraine?
NATO 54%, NATO and Russia 17%, More NATO than Russia 12%, Russia 7%, Don’t know 7%, More Russia than NATO 3%,
Politicians in Serbia they trust
Vučić 46% (current populist president, Serbian Orban) | No one/doesn’t know 27% | Ponoš (right leaning ex-candidate for president, kinda pro-EU)/Dačić (pro-russian, ex PM and ex minister) 6% | Others 5% | Jovanović (pro-russian candidate for president) 4%, Đilas (one of the leaders of opposition, pro-EU, left leaning)/Đurđ.-Stamenk. (Far-right, pro-russian pres. candidate) 3%
Opinion of authors, Google Translated:
12. The attitude of public opinion towards Serbia’s entry into the EU is the same as the attitude of the government and its media towards the EU
> The attitude of citizens towards the European Union is under the pressure of “genetic” emotions that have been built during the history of this nation, then under the pressure of government (Vučić’s) policy and media policy that are under the control of the government; but also under the pressure of the politics of a significant part of the opposition parties and one part of the intellectual elite. The confusion in that relationship with the EU was created with the intention and belief that it could be cleared up, if necessary. In the subtext of the policy pursued by the mentioned subjects, we find the attitude: “We want to join the EU, but under our conditions” or “We want to join the EU, but nothing should change here” or “If you want us, we are here, as we are.” All in all, it somehow turns out that we are accepting the European Union into our Balkans, and they are not accepting us into Europe! ”
22. Conclusion
> In the political arena in which Serbia wanted or did not want to find itself, four actors dominate: Russia, the European Union, America and China. In the perception of the political arena and its actors, the citizens of Serbia mostly problematize only Russia and the European Union, China is a recent “player”, while America is either in the shadows or is perceived as a player acting through the European Union.
> Russia is seen as the country of the people closest to Serbia (40%), as the most important foreign policy partner of Serbia (40%), Putin is the leader on whom Serbian citizens have the best opinion (45%), Russia is in second place in terms of grants (26%), Russia ranks third in terms of investment in Serbia. The European Union is the first in terms of volume of investments in Serbia (36%) and in terms of the volume of non-refundable aid to Serbia (35%), the European Union is Serbia’s second foreign policy partner (after Russia) – 30%, Serbia needs to harmonize its foreign policy with the EU %), Serbia should accept EU accession (30%), ie refuse it (43%); 34% of Serbian citizens would say YES in a possible referendum, and 51% NO to the European Union.
> Despite knowing the facts and accepting interest as a criterion in international politics, the citizens of Serbia give priority to emotions in thinking about foreign policy, which then so colors the perception of international relations that in many cases we can not talk about rational preferences. Public opinion views on foreign policy are colored by emotions and marked by confusion of views and contradictory views on what is happening in the circle in which Serbia found itself.
Bad news
You don’t need EU guys, don’t worry.
[deleted]
Good, don’t need another Hungary
Well, I am against them joining, so there is that.
That’s fine. Their people, their choice after all.
based, kosovo je srbija
Good fuck off
Well you are in luck, nobody will force you to join.
Im among 51%. Nothings against EU, its just for me personally in the simplest words possible; EU and western coalition doesnt care about us and humiliate us at every turn, EU citizens have predominantly negative opinions about us as this subreddit demonstrates daily, blatantly rubbing us dirty about Kosovo at every turn. Not to mention we are listening about EU and the future from 2003-2004. So all in all, for me there is no mutual respect. We should focus on dealing on our inner problems and maybe somewhere down the road we might conjointly come to the same conclusion. As it stands, would vote for no in a heartbeat.
I struggle to find words for how crazy some of the opinions from this survey seem to me. Sometimes I feel Bulgaria is crazy and hopeless but Serbian public opinion seems an order of magnitude worse.
I don’t know how you chart a positive democratic future (which Serbia dearly needs) starting from such a standpoint. The majority is enamoured with dictators and dictatorships while feeling disdainful towards the countries it should follow.
That’s fine, not every country has to be in the EU.
That’s fine, right about now most of Europe also wouldn’t want Serbia to join.
Didn’t expect much anyways they are too Russia friendly
With the answers to the other question I am glad they don’t want to join. They might as well be Russian with their apparent love for dictators.
No free money for them. I think people really forgot the benefits from the EU.
we europeans are not sorry about that. as far as i am concerned they can join russia… we will definetely not miss them. in the process they can take also hungary with them
Finally some good news coming out of Serbia. We don’t need them in the EU.
Yeeeeeeah !!! another country my taxe money won’t go and be used to enrich their corrupt leader. Damn I wish Hungary and Poland has done the same back in the days. Thanks Serbia.
Serbia will never join soon anyway. They just pretend they want to join cause they are getting money from the EU for certain projects.
They would need to recognise Kosovo before joining and we all know that’ll never happen.
EU can probably do without yet another rabidly anti-western member state that votes against common interests just so their local populist leaders can show that they “stuck it to those progressives and bureaucrats in Brussels”.
Who would have thought dropping Uranium bombs would impact the vote into joining the EU.?
Surprised Pikachu face lmao
Good for the Serbs
That’s fine, democracy has spoken
tbh the eu has been very pushy when it comes to serbia and kosovo and sanctioning russia. that pushiness is a huge detriment for the relations between the people and the eu. due in no small part to the government controlled media and vucic’s “neutral” stance. they are portraying eu as this organization which wants to push serbia away from “serbian historical morals” (ie kosovo, friendship with russia, anti-nato agenda).
i wouldnt blame the people entirely, a lot of serbs are still stuck in this vicious loop of reading the same pro-sns tabloids and falling for propaganda. i think the eu needs take a much more subtle approach, much like what they’re doing in novi sad right now, if they want to rein in serbia
Great, stay out then! They have to decide tho. 100% EU or 100% Russia’s little puppet.
The price of EU letting Vucic rule by iron fist and recognizing his goverment will be heavily payed both by us Serbs and EU.
Fine, then don’t join
You can freetrade with UK instead if that suits you better 😉.
Then don’t
lets not bash them, they have huge issues with propaganda and its how their politicians are getting votes. We should look into how to help Serbia disassemble it’s propaganda machine (state run media) and everything else will sort itself out eventually. Recognition of Kosovo should still be mandatory though. Spain, Slovakia, Greece, Cyprus, and Hungary should all recognize Kosovo, as well
Orban malding rn
Well then don’t. What’s newsworthy about rhis?
Welp, time to take their candidate status away and cut the money off.
Ok, no worries.
That’s too bad, been there, some really nice people. But if we don’t share the same value there is no point and we better improve the current Eu before we introduce any other country anyway.
Serbia is in an alternative reality.
Thanks God
Bosnia is more likely to join EU than Serbia