BRATISLAVA, April 20, (WEBNOVINY) — Rating of trustworthiness of politicians changed in the course of the election year 2010 and at the beginning of 2011. While in February 2010, now opposition leader and ex-prime minister Robert Fico led the rating with 31 percent of preferences, in March 2011, respondents mostly stated that they did not trust anyone (37 percent). This stems from the public opinion poll that the Public Affairs Institute (IVO) carried out on a representative sample of 1,025 respondents between March 1 and March 8. IVO also surveyed what politicians the public considers trustworthy. Respondents could list a maximum of three names in a spontaneous answer to the question. “This rapid increase in the share of people without confidence in politicians (from 24 to 37 percent) can be explained by the overall change in the political climate when political interest ebbed after the pre-election mobilization and escalated expectations and disappointment over the post-election development surfaced,“ stated Zora Butorova and Olga Gyarfasova of IVO in a report on the survey outcome.
Chairman of the strongest opposition party SMER-SD Robert Fico is still leading the rating of trustworthiness of politicians but his popularity has shrunk compared with February 2010 from 31 percent to 23 percent in March 2011. He was prime minister at the time of the survey last year. His lead over present Prime Minister Iveta Radicova (SDKU-DS) has shrunk in yearly terms. Iveta Radicova has improved her position from last year’s 14 percent to 17 percent registered in March which lifted to from third to second position. On the contrary, former interior minister and deputy prime minister Robert Kalinak descended from the runner-up post to the third position with trustworthiness down from 16 percent to 9 percent. President Ivan Gasparovic ranked fourth (8 percent) followed by Bela Bugar (7 percent) and Ivan Miklos (6 percent).
Most politicians from both coalition and opposition camps, especially Robert Fico (8 percentage points) and Robert Kalinak (7 percentage points) have registered a significant drop in trustworthiness over the past year. Position of Chairman of LS-HZDS Vladimir Meciar has significantly weakened (from 6 percent to 1 percent). No SMK representative won over 1 percent of trust among people. Neither SMK nor LS-HZDS made it to parliament in the parliamentary elections in June 2010.
SITA