Conflicting views in Tirana and Skopje

Towards the end of February, the Gallup/EFB roadshow passed through Tirana and Skopje. In Tirana, the event was organized jointly with the European Movement in Albania and the Albanian School of Political Studies. Robert Manchin, Gallup Europe’s CEO, presented the Albanian results which showed that while its citizens were satisfied with their standard of living (54%) and the EU (88%), most respondents saw more opportunities abroad (64%).
After EFB Executive Director Hedvig Morvai-Horvat had introduced the panel, Selim Belortaja, Albania’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, recognised the importance of the surveys on public perceptions and expressed his satisfaction with the fact that most Albanians believed the country was moving in the right direction. He claimed that while many respondents seemed to be interested in leaving the country, many Albanians regularly returned. Despite the survey indicating that support for Greater Albania had risen compared to 2006 (to 71%), Thomas von Handel, head of the Political, Economic and Information Section in the EU Delegation, argued that there was no serious political debate on this topic in Albania. He was personally pleased with the high support that the EU was enjoying in the country.
In Skopje, the presentation of results showed that citizens were seriously worried about Macedonia’s economic situation. Two-thirds of unemployed Macedonians did not feel they would be able to find a job in the next 12 months, which made them the most pessimistic in the region. Over 70% of respondents stated they had problems in getting by with household income.
Commenting on the decline in the belief that EU accession was a good thing, EU Delegation representative in Macedonia, Erwan Fouéré, stated that perceptions in the Balkans were never static and that included views about the EU. On the naming dispute (the survey had shown that respondents were getting impatient with the country’s leaders), Fouéré said that this had been a problem for too long, and its resolution would help Euro-Atlantic integration in the country. This view was supported by MP Ermira Mehmeti Devaja who argued that the issue had overshadowed important problems in Macedonian society such as politicised administration, corruption and a low standard of living. The Institute of Sociological and Political Research’s Mirjana Malevska quoted results from her institution’s survey which showed that the dire economic situation could lead to the radicalisation of some segments of the population, and especially those worst hit by the crisis.