A mix of good and bad news for Croatian politicians
The latest Crobarometer poll, conducted by Ipsos Agency for Nova TV, reflects the effects of political events which took place at the end of January and the beginning of February, including the inauguration of the new government and ministers. In addition to the dismissal of Veterans Affairs Minister Mijo Crnoja and controversies surrounding Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegović, the focus was on the decisions by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović to seek dismissal of Security Intelligence Agency director Lozančić and to issue several controversial pardons, reports Jutarnji List on February 26, 2016.
The two main parties have not seen any significant changes in their levels of support (HDZ 28.9 percent, SDP 26.2 percent). However, support for MOST continues to (10.2 percent, compared to 14.5 percent in the previous poll). This resulted in the increase of support for Živi Zid and in the share of undecided voters.
It appears that the recent decisions by President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović have somewhat reduced her support. After three months of continuous increase, support for her decisions has fallen. However, the average rating for the president is 3.16 (on a 1-5 scale) and is still higher than the average score for other state institutions.
On the other hand, the government of Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković has received mixed reactions from voters, and it currently has support of 40 percent of respondents. The government is not supported by 34 percent of respondents, while 26 percent did not have opinion about the government. Compared with the government of Zoran Milanović in its first month, the current government is not faring well. Zoran Milanović's team had support of 60 percent of voters in its first month in office. The average score for the current government (2.51) is also significantly lower than the score which was given to the previous government in its first month (3.18).
Slightly more than half of voters believe that the government of Tihomir Orešković will make it to the end of its term. About 53 percent of respondents believe that Croatia is moving in the wrong direction, 33 percent believe that Croatia is on a right track, while 14 percent of respondents do not know which direction Croatia is moving.
The poll was conducted on a sample of 973 adult citizens from all Croatian regions. The maximum margin of error for party ratings is 3.6 percent.
