Almost 33 years after the December 1989 Revolution, which led to the collapse of the communist regime in Romania, things seem to be going in the wrong direction. Recent surveys quoted by Agerpres revealed that more than half of Romanians think the situation in the country is worse than in 1989.

The surveys launched on Thursday were carried out by INSCOP Research within the "Romania Agenda 2050" project commissioned by the Strategic Thinking Group. The University of Bucharest, the "Babeş Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca, the Politehnica University of Bucharest, the West University of Timisoara, and the "Grigore T. Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Iasi are partners in the project.

The first survey was conducted between May 23 and June 14 on a sample of 1,500 people, and the second between September 26 and October 4 on 1,200 people.

Both surveys found that over half of Romanians see the general situation in the country as worse than in 1989 - 54% of respondents in the May-June survey, respectively 57.4% in the September-October poll.

But people seem to still be optimistic: 43.5% of those interviewed in May-June, respectively 39.1% of the respondents from September-October, said that the country's general situation in 2050 will be better than now.

"The mature generation is, in one way or another, disappointed by the gap between their expectations in 1989 and what has happened now. On the other hand, there are young people who don't know much about what was before 1989 or what society was like, and don't think rationally. For example, no one thinks that in the 1989 Romanian society, almost everything was missing, you had no freedom of movement, the standard of living was extremely low, and you did not have basic things, such as permanent access to electricity, fuel or food," commented the rector of the University of Bucharest, Marian Preda, quoted by Agerpres.

The two surveys also revealed that 68.4% of Romanians agree with the transition to environmentally friendly energy sources. More than half of respondents said that the cost would make them reduce their energy consumption, while almost three-quarters (72.5%) would like to install photovoltaic panels.

When asked which are the two most important environmental problems facing Romania, 58.4% of those questioned answered illegal deforestation and 42.6% water pollution.

The September-October survey said that a third (33.3%) of respondents thought about finding a job abroad in the future, while 65.8% said they had not considered it. 41.5% of Romanians believe that those who go to work abroad are seen in Romania as having "no alternatives."

On a different note, the survey from May-June revealed that 83.5% of Romanians believe that the country should look towards the west in terms of political and military alliances, namely towards the European Union, the US, and NATO.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

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