The research conducted by the Belgrade Center for Security Policy (BCBP), which was published today on the Kossev website, reveals that 52% of people in Serbia believe that Serbia should intervene militarily in Kosovo and Metohija in case of conflict, while 47% of respondents would personally join in such action.
However, 70% of the interviewees believe that there will be no armed conflict in the Balkans in the next five years.
The survey respondents see the preservation of Kosovo and Metohija as part of Serbia and strengthening cooperation with neighbouring countries and Russia as some of the most important foreign policy priorities.
About two-thirds of the survey participants believe that lasting peace between Serbs and Albanians is possible, while half of them believe that peace can only be achieved in the event of a peaceful resolution of the dispute regarding Kosovo’s status.
The survey also showed that 54% of the respondents are concerned that a Greater Albania will be created in the future, 40% said that Kosovo Albanians have the greatest interest in starting a conflict in the Balkans and 25% mentioned NATO in this context.
About 58% of the interviewees believe that the Republic of Srpska should secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina and become an integral part of Serbia, with the “vast majority” of the interviewees believing that such an outcome would not lead to a conflict.
When asked whether Serbia should recognize the independence of Kosovo if it the Republic of Srpska secedes to Serbia, 80% of respondents rejected such an idea.
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In regard to Serbia’s foreign policy, 40% of the respondents mentioned Russia as Serbia’s best friend, while 72% believe that Russia’s influence in the country is positive, which is 11% more than the results of the 2017 survey.
About 16% of the respondents named China the best friend of Serbia and 90% believe that China’s influence in the country is positive. 75% of the survey participants believe that China has provided the biggest assistance to Serbia in the fight against the pandemic.
The number of respondents who believe that Serbia is surrounded by friends in the region has almost doubled compared to 2017 and now stands at over 40%, but there is a slight increase in the opinion that Serbia has more enemies in the neighbourhood, i.e. just under 50% of the respondents believe this.
When asked who they consider Serbia’s biggest enemy, 30% of respondents identified Croatia, 20% Albania and 13% the United States.
Regarding the attitude towards the EU and European integration process, only 9% of the survey participants believe that the EU membership is the main foreign policy priority of Serbia, while a fifth believe that the state should harmonize its foreign policy with Brussels.
The results of the research show that 51% of the citizens do not support Serbia’s accession to the EU, compared to 46% of the respondents who would opt for the membership.
The survey was conducted between September and October on a sample of 1,200 citizens.
(Naslovi.net, 23.11.2020)
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