Poll: Public support to EU bid lowest ever

ISTANBUL

A survey by Metropoll Strategic Research Center shows that only 43 percent of Turkish people would vote yes in a referendum for EU membership. DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah GÜREL

Domestic public support for Turkey’s European Union bid has hit rock bottom, according to a study conducted by Ankara-based Metropoll Strategic Research Center that was released yesterday.

As of December 2012, the percentage of Turkish people “who would vote in favor of being an EU member country if a referendum was held” decreased to 43 percent from 69 percent as of 2008. The survey was conducted in 31 cities across Turkey with 1,202 people from various ethnic, religious, political and social-economic segments of society polled.

Of the participants polled, 40.7 percent said they would say “no” to an EU membership for Turkey and 10.4 percent said they were still undecided, while 5.9 percent said they had no thoughts about the issue. When the same question was asked to the Turkish public in September of 2008, the percentage of people who supported an EU membership for Turkey was 69.1 percent with only 23.7 opposed.

Turkey’s EU minister, Egemen Bağış, put the blame on the European Union for Turkish people’s waning interest in joining the European bloc. “This decrease was caused by the European Union’s policies, which are full of double standards, awry and inconsistent mentalities,” Bağış was quoted as saying by daily Radikal yesterday.

Turkish people do not oppose the idea of the European Union or its values, Bağış said, adding that Turks still fully support the reform process.