Between February and April 2023, the Institute for Democracy Societas Civilis – Skopje, within the Parliamentary Support Programme (PSP), implemented a combined research of a field survey and nine focus-groups in order to better analyze the public perception of the work of the Assembly and the political parties, the quality of life, the political issues and the trust in North Macedonia.
The research implemented in 2023 shows that citizen perception of the work in the Assembly is generally in line with the public opinion shared in the last four years. Such attitudes have remained virtually unchanged in terms of most of the questions related to the Assembly functions, its openness towards the public, the work of the MPs and the reforms in the Assembly. On a scale of 1 – the worst to 5 – the best, for 2023, citizens gave the work of the Assembly an average score of 2.2, which is lower than in the last four years.
HOW WELL ARE CITIZENS INFORMED ABOUT THE WORK OF THE ASSEMBLY
Virtually all of citizens believe that the Assembly plays a significant role in the country’s political life, but more than half of respondents are not well acquainted with the work done by the Assembly in the past. In terms of the work carried out by this MP composition that stood out the most, the majority of the surveyed citizens chose the Draft Law for Amending and Supplementing the Law on Minimum Wage and Information sheet on the Content of the Draft Negotiating Framework for the EU Accession Negotiations of the Republic of North Macedonia, proposed on June 30, 2022 by the French presidency of the Council of the European Union. The television is still the most popular information source among citizens when it comes to the work of the Assembly, while the Assembly TV-channel and website are still underutilized as official information sources for Assembly-related matters.
ASSEMBLY CONTROL AND OVERSIGHT OF THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT
The perception of most of citizens is that the Assembly does not exercise fully its constitutional authority to control the Government, ie. 27% of respondents believe that the Government has absolute control over the Assembly. Nearly half (46%) of respondents believe that the Assembly has exacerbated corruption, rather than achieving the opposite effect. Bearing in mind the MP questions as one of the tools of the Assembly to supervise the executive government, citizens are divided in their opinion whether they are being used appropriately or to criticize or advertise.
FUNCTIONS OF THE ASSEMBLY
Even though the perception of most of citizens is that the MPs influence the quality of the legislation, they are unhappy with their quality and believe that they are being amended frequently. It is precisely the adoption of the best quality legislation possible, the supervision of the spending of the budget and the care invested in the implementation of laws and policies that most of citizens highlighted as the key functions of the Assembly. Still, the bulk of citizens believe that the Assembly does a poor job of executing these functions.
THE PUBLIC IN THE WORK OF THE ASSEMBLY
When it comes to the openness of the Assembly towards the public, most of respondents believe that the Assembly is fully or partially closed to the public, and the MPs do not consider the remarks of the public when drafting the laws. Most of citizens believe that the MPs from their constituencies are unavailable for citizen meetings and fail to inform citizens of their work to a sufficient extent, and they do not even know about the MP offices. Citizens remark that the MPs do not pay sufficient attention to the issues faced by the municipalities and the local communities. Unlike in the previous year, citizens are less aware of who the MPs in their constituencies are. Most stated that they have not been informed about the ways in which they can participate in the work of the Assembly, which has resulted in the fact that only a handful of respondents have attempted to participate in the work of the Assembly.
WHO DO THE MPS IN THE ASSEMBLY REPRESENT?
Respondents are relatively divided in terms of their impression about the degree to which the MPs represent the interests of citizens in the Assembly. On the other hand, most of them believe that the MPs always represent their personal interests, the interests of the political parties as well as the interests of the businesses. A major portion of citizens that were surveyed also believe that the MPs are to some extent dependent on the will of the leaders of the political parties they hail from.
THE DEBATE IN THE ASSEMBLY
The majority of citizens believe that most of the MPs are not ready to make decisions on behalf of citizens. In addition, half of them believe that the MP statements have weak arguments, if any. Citizens believe that civic associations should be allowed to be more involved in the work of the Assembly. When it comes to the relationship between MPs, most of citizens have described it as hostile and competitive. In addition, citizens are under the impression that MPs at their sessions frequently or always use demeaning and degrading language with colleagues from other political parties. Citizens have a negative perception (it does not contribute at all or only partially) when it comes to all coalitions and parties and their contribution to better quality work of the Assembly.
REFORMS
In terms of the reform processes of the country, citizens are generally divided in their impression of the readiness of the Assembly to implement reforms that would normalize the political crisis. Most citizens believe that neither the boycott of the work of the Assembly nor delays of the debates in order to prevent the adoption of a law is a valid method for expressing political opinion in the work of the Assembly. Citizens agree that the political crises should be resolved in the Assembly, rather than by meetings of political party heads behind closed doors. Respondents are generally confused about the benefits of electoral reforms such as the introduction of open lists or single constituencies, however, most respondents believe that the change of the electoral model could make the MPs less dependent on their party leaders. Respondents failed to identify a dominant marginalized group whose interests are the focus of MP representation.
POLITICAL CONTEXT OF THE RESEARCH
Most citizens believe that the life in this country has headed in the wrong direction in comparison to citizens believing the opposite. The biggest optimists are citizens in the southwestern part of the country, where more than half have responded that life is moving in the right directions. Most of the negative responses, that is the statement that life is headed in the wrong direction, came from the Vardar region, the Southeast region, the Pelagonija region, the Polog region and the Northeast region. In terms of trust, on a scale of 1 – lowest to 10 – highest, citizens gave the highest score to the President of the country – 3.6, then the Assembly – 3.4 and the Government – 3.3. The judiciary received the lowest score of 2.7.