In a survey conducted by the Institute for European Affairs from March 8 to 14 this year in Serbia, on a sample of 1,207 participants, the surveyed citizens answered questions about Kosovo being forever lost to Serbia, citizens’ participation in internal dialogue, recognition of Kosovo’s independence, demarcation and a referendum.
Two-thirds of Serbia’s citizens would vote against recognizing Kosovo’s independence in the referendum, although the majority believe Kosovo is lost to Serbia and that Serbia is not able to re-establish sovereignty in that territory, the Blic daily reports.
47 per cent of citizens consider Kosovo to a lost cause for Serbia, 12 per cent are indecisive regarding this issue, and 41 per cent think that Serbia still has sovereignty over it.
Most of the survey participants who think that Kosovo is lost to Serbia are between ages 30 and 60, have a higher level of education and live in various parts of Serbia (with the exception of Eastern and Southern Serbia).
Almost a half believe that it is not feasible that Serbia regains full control and sovereignty in Kosovo, and more often than not. This opinion is prevalent among women who are older than 30, the survey participants who have at least secondary education and people living in the Belgrade region.
Over 36 per cent of the participants believes that Serbia can regain sovereignty in Kosovo, while 15 per cent are indecisive. 93 per cent of respondents did not participate in the internal dialogue on Kosovo, 4 percent replied with “I don’t know”, while 3 per cent of respondents stated that they participated in the dialogue.
More than a half of the respondents, 54 per cent, believe that the current government will not recognize the independence of Kosovo, these survey participants are older than 60, and mostly live in Western Serbia, including the region of Sumadija. The number of respondents who believe that the government will not recognize the independence of Kosovo decreases as the level of education increases.
27 per cent of respondents believes that the government will recognize Kosovo’s independence, while 19 per cent do not know the answer to this question.
78 percent of the respondents would not support the decision to recognize the independence of Kosovo in exchange for Serbia becoming an EU member faster.
13 per cent of the survey participants would recognize Kosovo’s independence, and 9 per cent do not know.
When asked what how they understood the term “demarcation”, 29 per cent of citizens said that the term implied the establishment of a border, whereby northern Kosovo will join Serbia, and the Presevo Valley will go to Kosovo, while 14 per cent consider it to be a border that coincides with the current administrative line.
41.8 per cent of respondents do not support the idea of demarcation, and these respondents are mostly men between the ages of 30 and 44 who live in different parts of Serbia, with the exception of Vojvodina.
(SEEbiz, 31.03.2019)
http://rs.seebiz.eu/vecina-gradana-srbije-smatra-da-je-kosovo-trajno-izgubljeno/ar-191944/
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