SURVEY What does the Romanian youth think about the Covid-19 pandemic and the political responses. 58% are in favor of renewing the state of emergency if the second wave keeps strengthening

According to a survey conducted for G4Media, the majority of the Romanian students between 19-29 generally respects the sanitary measures considering the virus quite serious.

More than 2 respondents out of 3 said that the coronavirus was “dangerous” (39%) or “rather dangerous” (27%) and nearly 13% of them reported Covid-19 cases among their relatives or having been personally infected by it. Yet, the finding also revealed that one third of the students is not afraid and considers the virus relatively benign.

Even if they are only 14% to consider their selves as an age group at risk, they generally implement the sanitary measures set by the government. When they meet strangers, the vast majority do keep a distance (64% always; 31% often). The respect of the rules is a bit more difficult with their relatives since only 14% always observe safety distances, 28% often and 37% sometimes.

About wearing a mask, the youth seems to be used to it with 84% of the respondents who always use it and 17% often. Outside, once again the majority (74%) wear a mask, but mostly “sometimes” (51%) and 26% said that they never use a mask outside.

Regarding politics, their opinion on the behavior of political actors is much more fragmented. The actions of the government are judged as bad by the majority of the respondents since 52% of them declared that they were not satisfied (28%) or rather not satisfied (28%). On the contrary, they are 32% to be generally satisfied, a percentage increasing to 69% among the PNL supporters.

President Klaus Iohannis is the one to receive the most positive opinions (42% vs 26%). Among the PNL supporters the positive opinion reaches 72%.

Furthermore, the respondents were asked to give their level of satisfaction of the PSD decisions during this crisis. 65% of them are not at all satisfied and 10%, rather not.

The survey also revealed that a slight majority of students is in favor of a renewal of the state of emergency. For those who are against, 56% defend the needs of the economy and 28% the right to freedom of movement. PNL supporters who said “no” mostly support the economic argument (83%) while the USR-PLUS supporters rather advocate for the right to freedom (35%).

Last, to the question “if the elections were held tomorrow, would you vote?”, 3 students out of 4 answered positively. The majority of the potential abstainers mainly pointed out the fear of the virus.

G4Media conducted this survey on the opinions and behaviors of the students amid the Covid-19 pandemic from July 9 to July 14. It targeted Romanian students between 19 and 29 living in Bucharest and got 115 respondents whose 102 fitted with these criteria. 60.7% are undergraduate, 30.4% graduate and 2.9% doing a Phd. The survey was made of 26 questions written in Romanian to avoid any bias and selection. The results are only indicative and may change from a region to another.

See the full version of survey here

Note: Antoine Dewaest is working as an intern for G4Media, enhancing the understanding of the Romanian society. He is studying at Sciences Po Rennes, France.