As a personal and institutional rating, the president remains at the top in the attitude of Bulgarians. The government still uses its initial credit of trust. The electoral data so far maintain a structure close to that of the past elections, with a clear leadership of GERB.
Although they are not entirely convinced, Bulgarians rather believe that the state has a way to limit narcotic substances among young people, despite the ingenuity of distributors. Mental problems are visible in our society, and generations are divided in their attitude towards injecting substances for aesthetic corrections. The declarative readiness for boycotts of commercial establishments is high, but the question remains to what extent this will be realized.
These are some of the conclusions and hypotheses from a nationally representative survey from the independent monthly program “face to face“ of the new sociological agency “Measure“, recently founded by the team of Parvan Simeonov. The survey was conducted with tablets between February 6 and 16, 2025 among 803 adult Bulgarian citizens.
Institutions
The president remains with the highest institutional rating - 47.6% have a positive attitude, and 38.4% - with a negative one. The attitude towards the government weeks after its formation is positive in 26.8% of cases, but negative in 56.7% of cases. The rest are hesitant. The data are relatively acceptable against the background of the usual levels of trust in institutions in our country and are an initial credit of trust. Traditionally, the parliament enjoys lower approval ratings – 11.2% have, but 76.7% do not. It is difficult to expect a better attitude towards the parliament – as a rule, trust follows party bias, and in parliament, in addition to “ours”, “others” are always represented.
Personalities
In terms of personal trust again – as with institutional trust – the highest indicators are for President Rumen Radev – with 46.7% trust, followed by Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov (18.9%), the leader of the best-represented party GERB Boyko Borisov (15.9%), and the Speaker of the National Assembly Natalia Kiselova (15.3%). However, Kiselova’s recognition is still not the highest possible. Next come party leaders.
It should always be taken into account that, as a rule, politicians in our country receive more negative than positive attitudes and personal ratings are rarely "plus". Familiarity with some - such as, for example, the new chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party Atanas Zafirov - is also still low and this prevents a complete report. For this reason, in the case of formations such as Ahmed Dogan's DPS, or even "Yes, Bulgaria", it seems most appropriate to report the rating of Ahmed Dogan or Hristo Ivanov themselves, even if they are not operational chairmen of their parties.
The ratings do not provide clarity so much about the work of one or another figure, but about the logic of mass preferences. Traditionally, personalities who are beyond the daily political struggle have a higher rating, smaller parties generate less support for their leaders, more political experience also means a decrease in the rating.
If the elections were today
If the elections were today, 26.5% of those participating would have voted for GERB-SDF, 13.9% - for “Continuing the change-Democratic Bulgaria“, 13.5% - for “Vazrazhdane“, 10.1% - for DPS - New beginning, 7.0% - for DPS-Democracy, rights and freedoms, 6.8% - for BSP, 6.4% - for ITN, 5.9% - for for MECH, 4% for “Veličie“, and 5.9% – for other smaller formations. Separately, 3.1% of the entire sample stated that they would vote with “I do not support anyone“.
The data does not yet show serious dynamics compared to the results of the past elections. The current political life will have an impact.
Current problems
Our society still rather believes that when it comes to the sale of narcotic and intoxicating substances in vaping devices, chewing gum, candy, etc. among adolescents, the state has its own mechanisms for influence and not everything depends solely on the market. “There are measures that the state can take and the trade can be completely stopped“, say 46.1%. “Traders always find ways and trade cannot be completely stopped“, choose 36.4%. 13.6% admit that they are not sufficiently familiar with this issue, and the rest hesitate.
“Measure“ also asked the most general question “In case of price increases, are you inclined or not inclined, to personally participate in a civil boycott of supermarkets, for example?“. 65.1% declare an inclination. 21.8% do not declare such an inclination. Thus, in the end, the declarative willingness is high. The question of what proportion of those inclined are actually ready is quite different.
Interestingly, the proportion of those abstaining from boycotting is more serious among the more vulnerable groups and pensioners. There, supporters also prevail, but to a lesser extent. The likely reason is the pricing policy of some supermarkets - related to price reductions. Another likely reason is the weaker possible awareness of such actions, the different personal agendas in different age groups.
The problems with aesthetic procedures have also given rise to serious public discussion. 21.1% generally accept the type of aesthetic procedures in question, in which substances are injected, for example, for lip volume, cheekbone shaping, etc. However, 67.2% hold the opposite opinion. The rest are hesitant.
Demographic breakdowns show that the youngest are predominantly tolerant, while the oldest are almost entirely against. There is a classic generational change.
Meanwhile, it turns out that over a third of those surveyed say they know someone with mental disorders. The topic has also gained public attention in the last month and led to serious debates. The data should be read with some caution regarding sincerity, but they are clear enough evidence of the spread of the problem.
Study sheet:
The data comes from the independent research program of the sociological agency “Measure“. The study was conducted “face to face“ with tablets between February 6 and 16, 2025 among 803 adult Bulgarian citizens. The maximum standard deviation is ±3.5 at 50% shares. 1% of the sample equals about 54,000 people.
Source: myara.bg