The President’s address to the people on August 24 with a proposal for the significant reform of the country’s political system has found considerable resonance in political circles and has given an excuse for comprehensive political debates. It has, however, gone right over the heads of the majority of the country’s population. According to a national sociological survey held between September 14 and 19 by the Ukrainian Institute of Social Investigation and the Center of Social Monitoring, 53% of the population said that they ‘knew nothing’ of the President’s appeal. Just over a third had heard something and only 11% of the 2011 questioned answered that they were aware of the President’s proposal. Of the other areas investigated, respondents gave the most approval to measures aimed at strengthening local self-government (47% of respondents support the proposal, with 11% coming out against it), followed by the formation of a permanent Parliamentary majority (36% for, 15% against) and the formation of a coalition government (30% for, 13% against).
The sociologists also tried to determine the attitude of the population to the opposition protests that took place in September. Only 9% of those questioned stated that they had or intended to take part in the protest actions, while 82% were not planning to take to the streets. At the same time, 86% of respondents consider that the “majority of state officials, deputies and other people connected with the authorities were interested only in the question of their own enrichment”. 80% of the population, meanwhile, agreed with the fact that “Political leaders are remote from the people and indifferent to their problems”. Moreover, the level of social tension in society, according to the survey, remains relatively low: 30% of the respondents considered the socio-political situation in their area as calm; 42% noted that there was an insignificant amount of social tension; 13% said that there were signs of significant tension, while 4% consider there is the threat of a serious conflict.
