Polls show great anti-Western sentiment in Serbia

The Novi Treci Put (New Third Way) NGO said the anti-Western sentiments come in the form of negative reporting on Western states adding that the a majority of the public hold negative views about the West. The polls showed that anti-Western sentiments are very strong and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un scored higher than any Western leader, Iran scored better than any Western state.

It said that reporting on Russia and Ukraine are significantly more balanced than before with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban remaining the most popular foreign leaders.

According to the NGO, most of the negative reports on the 15 most popular news portals are about NATO, the United Kingdom and United States. China is the only country with continuously stable positive reports from March 2022 to April 2023. Reporting on the European Union was positive in March and April 2023 mainly because of a grant to the children’s hospital in Belgrade and other projects.

The polls showed that the public is divided almost equally on sanctions on Russia and membership in the European Union which have not changed but with a slight rise in support for NATO membership from 9 percent in June 2022 to 15 percent in June 2023. They showed a gradual drop in support for China as Serbia’s main political partner and a slight rise in support for the US from 1 to 5 percent.

Almost 50 percent of the public rated Russia as the country’s most important political partner. The EU has the support of 30 percent, China 17 percent.

The NGO polled the public about BRICS for the first time and the results showed that 43.2 percent want Serbia to join that organization while 18.2 percent would not.