Polish Attitudes to the Protests in Belarus
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The world’s attention has recently been turned towards the peaceful protests in Belarus, which began in reaction to the declaration of the presidential election result. According to official pronouncements, the election was won by the incumbent, Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in office since 1994.
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Almost three quarters (73%) of Polish people have said they are interested in the events in Belarus and one seventh (14%) are engrossed by them. Every fourth respondent (26%) is not interested at all.
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Three fifths (59%) of people are sympathetic towards the protesting Belarusians, with very few (4%) not being positive towards them. The rest (37%) are either indifferent or unable to formulate an opinion in this matter (8%).
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A positive attitude to the protestors was virtually universal (94%) among people who were very interested in the events in Belarus and among a majority (68%) of those who were quite interested. Among the remaining respondents, indifference prevailed (55%).
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This ‘Current Events and Problems’ survey (363) was conducted using a mixed-mode procedure on a representative sample of named adult residents of Poland, randomly selected from the National Identity Number (PESEL) register.
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Respondents independently selected one of the following methods:
– Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI);
– Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI), respondents receiving researchers’ telephone numbers in an introductory letter from CBOS;
– Computer Assisted Web Interview (CAWI), where respondents filled in the online questionnaire independently, gaining access by means of a login and password provided in an introductory letter from CBOS.
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In all three cases the questionnaire had the same structure and comprised the same questions. The survey was carried out between 7 and 17 September 2020 inclusive on a sample of 1149 people (68% using the CAPI method, 20.1% CATI and 11.9% CAWI).
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