Survey: Three in four Romanians believe country is going in the wrong direction

Three quarters (75%) of Romanians believe the country is going in the wrong direction, according to an IRES survey called "The Balance Sheet of the 2017 Political Year. Perspectives for 2018". Most people are more worried about the political crisis than price increases. Only 17% of those surveyed believe things are going in the right direction. Of the respondents aged 36-50, 81% consider that things are going in the wrong direction in Romania. Some 45% of the people surveyed believe 2017 was a worse year than 2016, 30% think it was the same, and 24% think it was better. Moreover, 46% of respondents believe that 2018 will be even worse for Romania than 2017, 24% think it will be the same whereas only 28% think it will be better. Over a quarter of the respondents (27%) said the thing that worried them the most in 2017 was the political crisis while 24% were most worried by the increase in prices. About 15% were worried about getting ill and 13% were worried about the lack of jobs. Lower revenues, job uncertainty and lack of perspectives were also among the things that worried Romanians in 2017. Some 90% of Romanians are unhappy with the politicians' activity in 2017. The amendments to the justice laws represented the main political event of 2017, according to 30% of respondents. The second most important political event represented the protests against the emergency ordinance no.13 removing the threshold for abuse of office (28%). Other important political events were the decision to increase public employees’ wages, according to 17% of the respondents, the change of the Grindeanu government (12%), and the fiscal reform adopted by the Government (8%). The Government is responsible for the country’s bad situation in 2017, according to 47% of the respondents, while 23% blame the Parliament and 22% point the finger at the President. In terms of trust in institutions, the EU, mayors and the media rank first, with percentages exceeding 40%. The least trusted institutions are the political parties, the Parliament and the prime minister, with under 20%. The president, the central bank and the International Monetary Fund are somewhere in the middle. A number of 1,627 Romanians over 18 participated in this survey, which has a margin for error of +/-2.5%, according to IRES. editor@romania-insider.com