Austrian Opinion Polls
The Austrian Opinion Polls was a program that was set up by Rangeley and Thomas765 and it was later incorporated into the newly formed Ministry of Domestic Affairs in Austria during Fragreg's presidency in June 2010. The first Opinion Poll was held on Thursday, June 3rd 2010 and received a total of 29 responses. The record so far in any one Opinion Poll is a total of 53 responses in the June 7th Poll (as of June 12th 2010).
Contents
Format of the Opinion Polls
When an Opinion Poll is posted, the results will follow two days after. Austrian citizens will no longer be able to participate in the polls once the results have been posted. There will then be a two or three day break from the poll unless it is followed by the 2nd or 3rd of a month. The opinion polls will be published via the BundesPressDienst organisation newspaper every time one is posted.
Some of the questions will include current events and a particular theme for that poll - it could be Foreign Affairs for one poll and Media for the next. Some questions may be repeated over and over again to see results over a period of time to produce a graph at the end of the month before the following presidential elections. [1]
Occasionally the Ministry of Domestic Affairs will publish special polls, to date the following Special Opinion Polls have been created:
17th June 2010 - FIFA World Cup 2010 Special [2]
Questions
Each Opinion Poll features certain questions of certain themes everytime one is published. The theme is often random and occasionally asked to be included by a citizen or a group of citizens within Austria. Most of the Opinion Polls will feature current events going on in Austria, and perhaps abroad.
First Opinion Poll
As this was the first opinion poll, most questions were random but it mainly featured foreign affairs such as the war in South Korea and Austrian citizen views on Austrian expansionism.
First Opinion Poll - June 3rd 2010
Total Responses: 29 [3]
The first poll dealt primarily with Austrian involvement in South Korea, proposals to launch a war of expansion, and the Presidential elections. In the Presidential elections, Fragreg polled ahead of Kaiser Alex 41% to 31%. Most voters supported involvement in Korea (51% to 35%) and opposed a war of expansion (69% to 17%). Those who voted for Kaiser Alex in the opinion poll tended to approve of monarchy, and Austrian expansionism. This is compared to Fragreg's supporters' view who are opposed to monarchy and Austrian expansionism overall. Support for the involvement in South Korea was split down the middle for supporters of the two candidates, while undecided voters heavily favor involvement, along with opposing monarchy and expansionism overall.
Second Opinion Poll - June 7th 2010
Total Responses: 53 [4]
The KU was well represented in the poll, with the ASO and LPO taking second and third respectively. Almost all poll takers can speak English, while a large majority can speak German as well. A majority favour joining an alliance, though when it comes to choosing which alliance there is less certainty. The Entente comes ahead with a small plurality over "none," while Phoenix comes in third. Interestingly, of the top three parties, both the KU and ASO heavily favor both joining an alliance, and having this alliance be the Entente. The LPO heavily favors not joining an alliance, but of those who do favor an alliance, the Entente is their choice.
Early in Fragreg's presidency, he recieves a 45% approval rating. Many are waiting for more time to pass before taking a definitive stance on his performance, as the majority (51%) is undecided. He received a moderate rating on the 1-10 scale which further reflects this, though many more rate on the positive side than the negative.
Third Opinion Poll - June 12th 2010
Total Responses: 47 [5]
On the issue of wargames, support for the 
Slovenia wargames was generally high and widespread amongst parties, while the prospect of games with Hungary was far more divisive. With 51% supporting and 43% opposing in total, the divisions are more evident when comparing support between the top four groups. Support was highest in the KU, where 57% support loaning the region. The ASO and unaffiliated voters both came in roughly even with 50% and 53% support respectively. Finally, the LPO had only 28% in support.
Support for Fragreg has trended upwards across the board since the last polling, with the undecided group shrinking and seemingly heading mostly into the support column - with the opposition moderately increasing. While his last polling had 45% in support, 4% opposing, and 51% undecided, it has now shifted to 66-15-19 in this polling. On the support scale, Fragreg improved from 5.94/10 last time, to 6.53/10. Comparing the top four groups again, the KU gave him his highest rating with 7.15, unaffiliated gave 6.8, LPO gave 6.42, and ASO gave 4.28.
And finally, as suggested in the last poll, we polled the approval rating of individual ministries. All ministries rated above 50% in approval, with the Ministry of Finance, under Borojevic von Bonjar, setting a high mark with 72% approval. The Ministry of Welfare, under Penegrin, came in a close second with 70%.
Fourth Opinion Poll - June 17th 2010
Total Responses: 48 [6]
The biggest event recent days was Austria's actions in support of the French independence effort. Support for Austrian involvement proved broad nearly across the board, with 79% in total supporting. Approval for involvement was the strongest amongst members of the KU, ASO, and OIP (85%), while unaffiliated voters gave only 62%.
The trend of increasing support for Fragreg has continued in light of the recent actions related to France. Moving from 66% approval last time to 77% this time, this apparently has come exclusively from previously undecided voters as the same amount (15%) disapproves as last time. On the support scale, he also improved his rating from an average of 6.53/10 last time, to 6.93/10 this time. Comparing the top four groups again, his support increased in three of them over the last polling: KU (from 7.15 to 7.72), OIP (from 6.42 to 7), and ASO (from 4.28 to 6.25). He experienced a slight decline in support amongst unaffiliated voters, moving from 6.8 last time to 6.07 this time, reflective of the lower support for involvement in France amongst these same voters.
While Austrians remain divided over issues of where wargames should be hosted (and with whom,) Fragreg is experiencing his highest yet levels of approval in light of the successful battles in the Rhone Alps and Aquitaine, in a popular war effort.
Fifth Opinion Poll - June 22nd 2010
Total Responses: 34 [7]
After an action packed few days involving the liberation of France, things have calmed considerably - and so too have sentiments in Austria. After seeing increases in his ratings for the previous pollings, more have shifted back into the "undecided" column on the issue of rating Fragreg's presidency - with approval moving from 77% to 65%, and undecided rising from 8% to 24%. His approval scale rating experienced a similar small slide, moving from a term high of 6.93 last time to 6.71 this time.
On the issue of military spending vs. building emergency reserves, Austria in general is split. 50% favor military spending, while 44% favor building emergency reserves. Dividing the results by party, the ASO (60%), unaffiliated (60%), and KU (58%) gave high ratings to military spending, while the OIP (66%) favored building emergency reserves.
More divisions were present on the issue of defending Phoenix colonies. Across the board, 56% were in support, with the ASO (88%), KU (75%) giving the idea very high marks of approval. On the other side, only 40% of unaffiliated voters, and 0% of the OIP expressed approval. The issue of defending friendly small nations proved more popular in general, with 76% expressing approval. In a reverse of the last question, the OIP gave this issue 100% approval, with the ASO (77%), KU (75%) delivering similarly high marks. Unaffiliated voters, however, gave the same marks as they did to defending Phoenix colonies - only 40% approval.
Overall, the boost to Fragreg from the successful war effort has begun to fade as people await the next step. Issues of military spending, and military deployments, will continue to be debated - especially as the congressional, and presidential elections near
Sixth Opinion Poll - June 30th 2010
Total Responses: 41 [8]
Opinion Poll 6 shows that most of those who joined Austria in eRepublik are also real life Austrians but it also shows that very few people were invited to eRepublik by an eAustrian citizen.
Political Party has remained very thorough throughout the month with Kronloyale Union receiving the most support in the majority of the Opinion Polls but with the biggest party following in second. People who support no party are just less than double than the least supported parties votes (which were two each). The majority of Kronloyale Union supported an "All-Austrian" baby boom and gave Fragreg a high response. The latter is the opposite by those who support Allianz Starkes Osterreich with only 4 voting more than 7. The parties with the highest average support for Fragreg were Adeptus Astartes with an average of 9.33 and Sozialistische Partei with an average of 8.5. The lowest were Democratic Party of Austria with an average of 4.5 and Allianz Starkes Osterreich with an average of 5.3 as both parties were against Fragreg in the presidential elections. Osterreich Independence Party and Kronloyale Union have more mixed to positive views of Fragreg as both parties supported Fragreg greatly in the June Presidential elections.
