MOST MOLDOVANS DISCONTENTED WITH REFORMS AND SOCIAL SITUATION - OPINION POLL

70.2% of Moldovan citizens maintain that the country is moving in a wrong direction and only 18.3% - in a right direction. 11.5% found it difficult to respond.

According to the opinion poll, conducted at the request of the Chisinau office of the International Institute for Monitoring Democracy Development, Parliamentarism and Suffrage Protection of Citizens of IPA CIS Member Nations (IPA CIS IIMDD), less than 1% of respondents are very satisfied with the economic situation in the country, 5.2% - satisfied, 26.5% - partially satisfied, 32.6% - not very satisfied, 33.1% - very discontent.

Director of the IPA CIS IIMDD in Chisinau Eugen Stirbu said that despite the growth of the number of those who are content with the economic situation (to 5.2% in 2018 from 1.6% in 2017), the general level of contentment is still low.

The poll demonstrated that only 1.4% Moldovans regard reforms in the country as very efficient, 25.7% - efficient, 51.3% - not very efficient, while 17.5% - not efficient at all. Also, only 7.4% maintain that the conducted reforms may lead to serious improvement of democracy in the country, 25.1% - that these will improve the situation, 20.7% - that reforms will not have a great effect, 24.6% - that reforms are useless.

The work of local authorities is positively assessed by 37% citizens, in culture - 34.2%, reform in education - 33%, in science - 30.5%, reform of central authorities - 27.2%. Over 80% respondents are discontented with the pension reform, 72.9% - by the domestic policy and the level of democracy in the country, 70.8% - situation in economy, 68.3% - activity of the banking system.

Only 10.2% citizens maintain that reform of the Government will lead to improvement of the entrepreneurial environment in the country, 41.8% - that it will help business only partially, 32.7% - that it is useless.

Stirbu reminded that as a result of Government reform, the number of ministries was reduced to 9 from 16, but it is still unknown how many agencies will be created by the Government. Their number may grow three-fold or even four-fold.

According to him, almost one-fourth of respondents said that the reform of central authorities will lead to great problems in the field of providing public services, while 20.3% - that the optimization will allow raising of the efficiency of state administration. 19.2% more supposed that the reform is profitable only to a single party, 18% - that it will raise the level of bureaucracy, 16.8% - that it will lead to a greater politicization of the process of appointing officials.

Around 76.7% of people say that for bringing migrants back in Moldova, the authorities have to improve the economic situation in the republic, 57% - that new jobs should be created, 55.2% - to raise salaries and living standards, 54.6% - to fight against corruption, 50.6% - to improve infrastructure.