Boris Trajkovski, Kiro Gligorov and Nikola Kljusev are the most popular politicians in the past three decades, assessed respondents included in the survey of the “Konrad Adenauer” Foundation and the Institute for Social Research “MK91”, on the occasion of 30 years of independence of the country.

Out of the total number of respondents, 42 percent gave the highest score 5 for former President Boris Trajkovski, 33 percent gave a score of 5 for former President Kiro Gligorov and 21.1 percent gave a score of 5 for former Prime Minister Nikola Kljusev.

According to the results of the research, 43.1 percent think that the country has successful development in the past three decades, which is a difference of 6.9 percent compared to those who have an opposite opinion.

The respondents point out the gaining of independence of the country (15 percent), the process of integration and the very integration into the EU and NATO (6.3 percent) and the country’s progress and modernization (2 percent) as the most positive things in the past three decades.

Negative things, according to the respondents, are the crime and corruption (12.7 percent), the economy and living standard (7.1 percent) and the political instability (3.1 percent).

– In this part, it is important to indicate that a high 70 percent of the respondents cannot or do not know which event to choose as the most positive in the past 30 years, and 56.8 percent of the respondents cannot or do not know which event to choose as the most negative in the past three decades, is said from the “Konrad Adenauer” Foundation.

The Ohrid Framework Agreement received support of 46.3 percent of the respondents, 38.5 percent support the signing of the Agreement for Friendship and Cooperation with Bulgaria, and 41.5 percent the Prespa Agreement.

NATO membership is supported by 59.8 percent, and 38 percent positively assess the process of European integration.

In regards to the Western ally countries, Germany has the highest score (69.5 percent have good, very good or excellent opinion of it) and for the US (57.4 percent have good, very good or excellent opinion of it).

China also received positive assessment (60.2 percent have good, very good or excellent opinion of it), Russia (61.6 percent have good, very good or excellent opinion of it) and Turkey (79.5 percent have good, very good or excellent opinion of it).

For 35.6 percent of the respondents, the country will develop better in the next three decades, for 22.6 percent it will develop worse, and for 16.6 percent the country will have a similar development as until now.

– This means that the number of respondents who have a positive outlook on the development of the country in the next 30 years is 13 percent higher, which points to the conclusion that there is a considerable level of optimism among respondents in regards to the future of North Macedonia, and the reasons for this should be sought in the stronger state-building capacity of the citizens, as well as in their commitment to the achieved state independence, is assessed from “Konrad Adenauer”.

The research was conducted in August and included 1.110 respondents.

Translation: N. Cvetkovska