Poll: No EU, NATO accession unless constitutional name changed

 Majority of citizens (53.5 percent) believe Macedonia cannot join the EU and NATO unless the constitutional name is changed,  while 27.5 percent of respondents say such option is viable, show results of the poll by the Institute for Political Research Skopje (IPIS).

Over a third of respondents (38.2%) would accept a change of the constitutional name for international use so that Macedonia joins EU and NATO, 47.1 percent would not accept a change, while 14.7 percent are undecided.

Forty-nine percent of respondents say the name dispute can be swiftly settled, 27.9 percent believe a quick solution is not possible, while 23.1 percent are undecided.

Majority of respondents (57.6%) support the Government’s initiative for improvement of relations with Greece, 23.2 percent do not support it, while 19.2 percent are undecided.

When asked how important it is to urgently solve the name dispute, 60 percent believe it is very important, while 17.5 percent say it is somewhat important. In addition, 42.6 percent of those polled say the dispute could be solved by the end of 2018, 32.7 percent do not believe this is possible, while 24.7 percent are undecided.

Regarding the possibility of Macedonia getting a NATO membership invitation and a date for the start of accession talks in 2018, 25.6 percent of respondents say this is attainable, 22.7 percent say they do not know when, 19.3 percent believe 2020 is the year, 13.5 percent opted for 2019, 8.6 percent believe this is the period between 2021-2025, 6.9 percent say never, while 3.3 percent say beyond 2025.

The IPIS poll, supported by the New York-based Columbia University through a project funded by the Norwegian Government, was carried out on a sample of 1,113 adults from Macedonia in the period between 16-21 December 2017.