More than six out of ten do not trust Cyprus government

More than six out of ten Cypriots do not trust the national government, whereas one in two believe things are moving in the wrong direction, according to the first results from a flash Eurobarometer made public on Tuesday.

Overall, 72 per cent of respondents in Cyprus deemed their current quality of life to be good – a five-point improvement over 2018. The average for the EU was 83 per cent.

But as regards the economy, the majority view (56 per cent) was that it was bad (up five points from 2018) while 43 per cent said it was good – a drop of 5 points. In contrast 68 per cent of Europeans said that the situation of the economy of their region is good (up two percentage points since 2018).

The survey was carried out across the EU regions. Cyprus – where the survey polled 504 people aged 15 and over between September 20 and 23 – qualifies as a single region. The comparisons are with a flash Eurobarometer of autumn 2018.

Questions covered quality of life, the state of the economy, main concerns, trust in the EU and in national governments, the EU’s handling of the Covid crisis, effectiveness of the recovery plan and effectiveness of the green deal, among other issues.

Asked how the next 12 months will be as regards life in general in comparison with today, 27 per said better, 29 per cent said worse and 40 per cent said the same.

And as regards the situation in the economy, the corresponding figures were 23, 40 and 35 per cent with an increase recorded in respondents expecting things to get worse overall (14 points) and as concerns the economy (22 points).

Asked to say what they consider the two most important issues facing Cyprus at the moment, the economic situation and unemployment (45 per cent) and cost of living (31 per cent) emerged top of the list.

Other replies were immigration (23), crime (8), people and/or businesses leaving the region (6), the education system (23), the environment and climate change (15), health (29), housing (9), transport (4) and other (6).

Asked if they tended to trust or not to trust the EU, 55 per cent said they did (up 2 points), 43 per cent said no (up 2 points) and 3 per cent said they didn’t know.

There was a thumbs down for the government with only 32 per cent – a drop of 11 points – saying they tended to trust it and 66 per cent – a 14 point jump from 2018 – saying they tended not to. Another 2 per cent said they did not know.

EU-wide, 44.1 per cent of respondents said they tended to trust their national government and 52.1 per cent said they did not.

The majority – 56 per cent – said they are satisfied with measures taken by the EU to fight the pandemic.

Pessimism as to the future marginally surpassed optimism by 50 per cent to 48 per cent. Yet 78 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with the life they lead and 21 per said they were not.

To the question whether at the present time, in general, things are going in the right direction or in the wrong direction in our region, 32 per cent said they were, 56 per cent said they were going in the wrong direction, 10 per cent said neither and 2 per cent said they did not know.