Political preferences of Gagauz people depend on economic and linguistic factors

13.11.2013 10:52
1175
2 minute(s)

A recent poll shows that the idea of European integration for most of the residents of Gagauzia is a distant one. They are dissatisfied with the living standards and with the relations between the Executive Committee, the People’s Assembly and the country’s administration, IPN reports, quoting the newspaper “Panorama”.

Analyzing the results of the survey “State of social conscience in Gagauzia before the election campaign for the Governor of Gagauzia”, the paper inquires why the politicians in the autonomous unit restarted the confrontation.

“The Center for Political Technologies “PolitKontakt”, which carried out the poll in August, questioned 1,179 respondents and obtained interesting data that should make the politicians in Comrat and the authorities in Chisinau think,” writes “Panorama”. According to the survey, Gagauzia remains extremely poor.

“In particular, 54.8% of the respondent said their average monthly revenue per family member does not exceed US$100. 21.3% of the respondents said their average revenue per member is under US$300. Only 2.9% of the respondents have incomes higher than US$300,” reads the article.

Only 6.4% of the Gagauz people are for Moldova’s accession to the EU, as against 31% at national level. 65.1% of the people in Gagauzia are for coming closer to Russia, as opposed to 44% at national level.

“Many have pro-Russia options because they expect personal economic advantages, first of all in finding a job in Russia. However, in the future they will not be against the integration into the EU, if they enjoy advantages. A discouraging factor for the pro-European orientation in Gagauzia is the poor knowledge of the official language (Moldovan/Romanian). This hampers the residents of the region from looking for work in Spain and Italy, as other Moldovans do,” says the article.

Every second resident of Gagauzia considers that Russian is a communication language, while 45% of those polled said they communicate in the Gagauz language too. Only 2% of the respondents chose ‘Moldovan” as communication language, while 1% - the Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Romanian languages.

According to the Center for Political Technologies “PolitKontakt”, the margin of sampling error is 3%.