The latest “Barometer” survey on Euronews Albania conducted from May 4 to May 14, tested Albanian institutions and their trustworthiness among citizens. Considering the dynamics of the current domestic political system, the survey particularly focused on the Special Anticorruption Structure (SPAK).
Citizens were asked to rate their trust in a group of key institutions on a scale from 0-10.
Among a list of 15 institutions in Albania (including international representations such as the United States Embassy, the European Union Delegation, OSCE, SPAK, the presidency, the government, the police, local authorities, religious representatives, media, civil society, judiciary, the opposition, parliament, and political parties), SPAK continues to be the most trusted Albanian institution compared to all other Albanian institutions.
Out of 1000 face-to-face interviews conducted, 32% of respondents expressed trust in SPAK, ranking it as the most trusted Albanian institution.
International delegations remain at the top of the list, as in previous measurements, with the US Embassy in Tirana having 40.5% trust from Albanian citizens, followed by the EU Delegation with 35.8%.
The recurring survey on the same topic, with the same questions and the same scale, has been ongoing since November 2022.
In four different surveys (November 2022, November 2023, February 2024, and May 2024), SPAK remains the most trusted Albanian institution in 2024.
Trust in SPAK was 14.2% in November 2022, 26.16% in November 2023, 33.6% in February 2024, and 32% in May 2024.
Albanians appreciate SPAK’s work
The majority of Albanians have positively evaluated SPAK’s work.
When asked, “How do you evaluate SPAK’s work so far?”, 54% of the 1000 interviewees responded positively, while only 20.4% had a negative evaluation.
24.8% of respondents were neutral in their evaluation of SPAK’s work.
This positive evaluation has remained consistent across three different measurements conducted over seven months by “Barometer” with the same question and scale.
In November 2023, the positive evaluation was 50%, in February 2024 it was 56.8%, and in May 2024, it was 54%.
Which citizens value SPAK the most?
To better understand the positive evaluation of SPAK, “Barometer” analysed the demographic and political data of citizens who support and positively evaluate SPAK’s work.
The analysis shows that citizens are relatively homogeneous in their positive evaluation.
Despite this homogeneity, those who most positively evaluate SPAK’s work are women (60.9%), young people aged 18-24 (59.3%), those with higher education (56.2%), and those with higher incomes (56.7%).
In terms of political voting in 2021, there is a significant gap in the positive evaluation of SPAK’s work.
Citizens who voted for the Socialist Party in 2021 have a positive evaluation of SPAK (82.1%). Meanwhile, 26% of those who voted for the opposition in 2021 have a positive evaluation of SPAK, and 45.1% of those who did not declare their vote in 2021 also have a positive evaluation.
What impact does politics have on SPAK?
To understand the relationship between politics and SPAK, citizens were asked about the support that the majority and opposition provide to SPAK’s work.
When asked, “Does the government support SPAK in its work?”, 58.9% of the respondents answered positively, while 31.7% responded negatively and 9.4% said they did not know.
Regarding the question about the opposition, “Does the opposition support SPAK in its work?”, 26.5% of respondents answered positively, while 60.8% responded negatively and 12.8% said they did not know.
These questions were also asked three months ago by “Barometer” and data show that the perception of government support for SPAK’s work has decreased by 8.3%, while the perception that the government does not support SPAK’s work has increased by 5.1%.
The perception of the opposition’s support for SPAK’s work has increased by 2.2% over three months, while the opposite opinion, that the opposition does not support SPAK’s work, has decreased by 5.4%.
“Barometer” also asked citizens about their agreement with the statement, “Does the government have the power to hinder SPAK’s work?”
The majority of citizens (44.9%) answered affirmatively that the government has the power to hinder SPAK’s work, while 40.5% do not think the government can hinder SPAK, and 14.6% expressed that they do not know.
