Half of Romanians blame “all politicians” for current crisis, survey says

Overall, the survey showed a high level of dissatisfaction. Around 88% of respondents believe that Romania is heading in the wrong direction, while only 8% consider the direction to be good, with the remaining 4% representing undecided respondents or non-responses.

Romania has been without a fully empowered government since May 5, after the previous administration lost its parliamentary majority. The political deadlock could open the way to snap elections.

Regarding responsibility for the current political situation, almost half of those surveyed (49%) believe that “all politicians” are to blame.

Around 21% identify interim prime minister Ilie Bolojan and the National Liberal Party (PNL) as the main culprit, 11% point to the Social Democratic Party (PSD), 8% to president Nicuşor Dan, while the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) and the reformist Save Romania Union Party (USR) were mentioned by 3% of respondents each.

At the same time, when asked directly about Ilie Bolojan, 76% of participants said he was a rather bad leader for Romania, 18% rated him as rather good, while 62% said that he has not carried out any reform.

According to the survey, Romanians’ greatest fear for the coming period is a possible economic crisis, an option indicated by 31% of study participants. This is followed by concern about their children’s future (20%), the escalation of the war in Ukraine (18%), health problems (11%), and hatred in society (11%).

Regarding voting options, if parliamentary elections were to take place next Sunday, the distribution of percentages among all those who expressed an option was as follows: AUR with 36%, PSD with 23%, PNL with 16%, USR with 8%, UDMR with 5%, SOS Romania at 3%, and SENS at 2%.

Of the total adult population surveyed, 20% say they do not know or are undecided, while 15% say they would not go to vote.

The survey company behind the poll, Avangarde, is owned by sociologist Marius Pieleanu, who was accused of sexual abuse last year.