A recent IRES study reveals that most Romanians don’t trust the local political parties.

Three-quarters of the Romanians have bad opinions about the local parties. The negative view is more common with men, young people aged between 18 and 35, residents of urban areas, and people with higher education.

Moreover, more than nine in ten respondents have little and very little confidence in the political parties in Romania. The level of trust is connected to the respondents’ age: the lower the age, the lower the level of trust.

While more than nine out of ten respondents believe that the parties should represent the citizens’ interests, only 6% think that this actually happens. The party leaders are seen as the main beneficiaries of the parties’ interests, followed by the party members.

When asked to say the first word that comes to their minds when they think about the parties in Romania, most of the respondents have words with negative connotations. The most frequent words to describe political parties are thieves / theft / scam (12% of the interviewees), and corruption / bribe (10%).

When it comes to voting, half of the respondents say that the candidate matters the most, and a third say that the party’s program is the most important. Only 7% think that both the candidate and the program are important when making a choice.

The study also shows that 41% of respondents would vote for a new party while 38% wouldn’t do that.

Only 34% of the Romanians think that things will get better after the local and parliamentary elections to be organized in Romania this year. Meanwhile, 43% believe that the situation will remain the same, and 17% think that things will get worse.

The study was conducted in early February on almost 1,200 people.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com