According to a recent public opinion survey, the vast majority of Romanians feel that they are considered second-class citizens in Europe, and almost fifty percent of them believe that Hungary's policy regarding Transylvania aims to "separate" the part of the country. According to the majority, they must assert their national interests even if they risk exclusion from the European Union.

87.2 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that Romania should protect the rights of national minorities living on its territory, while 11 percent disagreed. The survey revealed that more than half of Romanians believe that the economic interests of some EU member states are behind the country's prevention of Schengen accession, while 43.5 percent believe that Romania does not meet all the accession conditions.

According to an even larger proportion of respondents - more than 78 percent - Romanians are considered second-class citizens in Europe, but slightly more than 20 percent of them disagree with this statement. According to almost 56 percent of the respondents, mainly foreign companies are responsible for environmental pollution in Romania, while only 35 percent believe that mainly Romanian companies are responsible for this. Similarly, more people believe that foreign companies (47.3 percent) than domestic companies and Romanian citizens (45.8 percent) are responsible for illegal deforestation in Romania. More than 35 percent of those surveyed also agree that highway construction is stalling because "foreign powers want to prevent Romania's development", but 58.2 percent of them say this is not true.

The first part of INSCOP's survey, which was published earlier, highlighted the fact that the majority of Romanians believe that their country belongs in Western political and military alliances, but that it must assert its national interests even if it risks being excluded from the European Union.

The second part presented last Wednesday revealed that 51.6 percent of those surveyed trust the EU (47.5 percent do not), and 49.4 percent trust NATO (47.9 percent do not). As for individual countries, among Romanians, Germany has a trust index of 58, the United States 47, China 19, and Russia 16 percent.

Source: MTI

The front page illustration: The Romanians who forcibly entered the Úzvölgy military cemetery on June 6, 2019. Photo: MTI/Nándor Veres.