The ratings of Vladimir Zelensky and his party stopped growing and even dropped a little.
This is evidenced by the results of a survey conducted by the Ukrainian Institute of the Future, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
As of now, Zelensky’s rating for those who have decided and will come to the polls is 30%, compared to 33% last month. 22% of the entire population are ready to vote for Zelensky, or 30% of those who have decided and will go to the polls.
For comparison, the ratings of his closest competitors were: Poroshenko - 14%, Boyko - 13%, Tymoshenko - 12%.
For the first time in the last few months, we are seeing not just a stop in Vladimir Zelensky’s rating, but we are seeing a slight rebound back. 33% last month 30% this month from everyone who has decided and is ready to go to the polls.
Director of the Ukrainian Institute of the Future Vadim Denisenko believes that this cannot yet be called a trend, we can only talk about a pause or rebound in rating growth.
“Anyone who is interested in sociology knows that ratings never go in a smooth line, they always go in steps.” Now we see such a stabilizing phase of the “ladder” rating of the President of Ukraine. It’s hard to say where the situation will lead next,” he says.
In his opinion, the pause in the growth of Zelensky’s rating was caused by voters’ dissatisfaction with the main problems that concern them - war, corruption, poverty and high utility tariffs. The list of these problems has remained unchanged since the start of research in February 2021.
“By and large, the distribution of the main negative expectations of Ukrainians regarding their lives takes place within the boundaries of these three or four points. Sometimes the problem of war arises, sometimes the problem of corruption, sometimes the problem of tariffs. But basically, these are the main problems around which all the negativity of Ukrainian society revolves,” noted Vadim Denisenko.
According to him, the growth of Zelensky’s rating began after the first sanctions of the National Security and Defense Council against Viktor Medvedchuk, but this step had only a temporary effect.
“If we talk about deeper issues, then the main formula by which Ukrainians lived was “we like what the president is doing, but we don’t believe that he will succeed.” More than three months have passed since the first sanctions and the current stabilization of Zelensky’s rating may be a “bell” for him and his team. Today, a certain fatigue is accumulating from the fact that we are told supposedly about some actions, but at the same time no actions take place. In fact, the authorities currently have no answer to any of the main problems of society.
On the issue of war, we all understand that the situation with the negotiation process is stalling. There is no negotiation process as such. If we talk about tariffs, this is one of the main problems that continue to worry society, and there is no answer to it.
In practice, the authorities do not communicate with society; there is no answer to what will happen in November, when the first payments for gas arrive, and what will happen to electricity prices, which have actually already begun to rise today. The third issue is the issue of low wages and pensions. There are no serious progress here. Even for that small layer of society that should now receive a pension increase (pensioners after 70 years of age), this has also been postponed until the fall.
Finally, when we talk about the fight against corruption, the law on oligarchs, which was one of the main cornerstones of the fight against corruption that the President’s Office proposed, essentially did not receive the resonance that the President’s Office had hoped for. According to our research, even among Vladimir Zelensky’s voters, more than half of his supporters do not believe that the law against oligarchs will lead to a real fight against corruption. Therefore, there are prerequisites for stabilization and further decline in Zelensky’s rating. I’m not saying that they will be implemented, but at the moment they exist and are quite serious,” concluded Vadim Denisenko.