The latest Strategic Marketing Agency survey poll has revealed that a large majority of Serbian citizens support the signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union. The agency has found that 66 percent of citizens support the signing of the SAA, while 21 percent are against it.

According to the poll, Citizens’ support for European integration, when ignoring the problems between Serbia and the EU, is at around 70 percent. In terms of party affiliation, all supporters of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) support the SAA signing, while 94 percent of the “For a European Serbia” list and 81 percent of SPS-PUPS-JS voters are for the signing. The signing is also supported by 66 percent of undecided voters, 56 percent of those who will not vote, 45 percent of DSS-NS coalition supporters, and 41 percent of Serb Radical Party (SRS) voters. The support for the signing SAA among SRS, DSS and NS voters is virtually 50 percent.

The agency has articulated that there is also a palpable difference in the views of younger people and older citizens—older people opposed the signing, while younger people were generally in favor.

Strategic Marketing Director Srdan Bogosavljevic said, “The Schengen White List, or the potential scrapping of the visa regime for Serbian citizens traveling through EU countries is what the large majority of the population (84 percent) views as very important, while 12 percent of citizens do not view this as a priority, mostly older people and the least educated citizens.”

The Strategic Marketing Director emphasized that the figures changed when arguments in favor or against the agreement were brought up. He said, “When reminded that some parties opposed the signing, and that the SAA should only be signed if the EU gives clear guarantees that Kosovo is part of Serbia, the number of DSS-NS supporters in favor of signing falls drastically, with only 56 percent of the original number in favor remaining so.”

The survey has shown that most party sympathizers do not change their views, but there is a noticeable change when it came to the Socialist Party of Serbia, which saw a loss of 16 points. Bogosavljevic said, “The number of Radicals who supported the signing of the SAA fell to nine percent, and DSS-NS support fell from 45 to 39 percent.”

The Strategic Marketing study was conducted on April 28, the day before the signing of the SAA, interviewing a sample group of 550 people over the age of 18. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.1 percent.