The survey, conducted between March 22 and April 17, 2022, found that the number of people with this opinion increased by eight percentage points since 2019.

In the survey published this Wednesday, only 6.0 percent of those questioned considered that corruption in the country is rare, the same percentage answered “I don’t know” and none said that corruption in Bulgaria was non-existent.

Eighty-four percent of Bulgarians estimated that too close links between business and politics in the country lead to corruption.

A similar number believed that favoritism and corruption hampered business competition.

This new political crisis in Bulgaria has its origins in the exit a few weeks ago of the government of the populist anti-system ITN party, of the singer Slavi Trifonov.

On the other hand, the coalition executive, led by the pro-European Kiril Petkov, after winning the elections, lost a motion of censure against the conservative opposition and, for this reason, the nation faces possible new elections in October.

Bulgaria has been in a dispute with Skopje since 2020 over the common past of both countries and demands more guarantees for the rights of ethnic Bulgarians in that country.

“Obviously, the political crisis in the country is intensifying, and each political party with ambitions for public support must clearly indicate which way out it proposes,” President Rumen Radev said, according to The Sofia Globe newspaper.

ef/mgt/hml