SECOND NATIONAL PUBLIC OPINION POLL INTEGRITY IN THE JUSTICE SECTOR
SUMMARY
The study was conducted by Magenta Consulting upon the request of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), which, as a lead partner, in consortium with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), implements the project “Ensuring the integrity, efficiency and independence of the justice system in Moldova – #Justice4Moldova”, funded by the European Union and co-financed by the Soros Foundation Moldova.
The primary aim of the study is to determine the main challenges, expectations and priorities in the implementation of reforms in the justice and anti-corruption sector, as well as on the perceptions regarding the actors in the respective sectors. The results of the second national public opinion survey on integrity in the justice sector were compared with the results of the previous research, conducted in 20231.
The data presented in this study were collected by the quantitative method – a CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview) survey. The survey was conducted with a national proportional probability sample of 1125 respondents from the general population, women and men aged 18+.
The data was collected between November 21 and December 11, 2025.
The results of the survey indicate a visible improvement in public perceptions of the justice system compared to 2023. Almost half of respondents (49%) believe that the legal situation has improved in the last three years, compared to 32% in 2023, while 20% believe that the situation has worsened. Also, 56% of respondents believe that the legal situation has improved as a result of the efforts of governments in the period 2021–2025. In the public perception, the justice system is mainly associated with the courts (39%), followed by prosecutors (26%) and the police (24%).
Despite this positive development, corruption remains the main structural problem in the perception of citizens, being spontaneously mentioned by 57% of respondents, followed by “cronyism”/lack of meritocracy and the unprofessionalism of specialists (15% each). At least a third of respondents believe that there is a lot of corruption in the justice institutions, especially in the police (40%), the judiciary and prosecutor’s office (37%) and among lawyers (34%), although these perceptions are lower than in 2023 for the courts and prosecutor’s office.
Trust in justice institutions is slightly increasing, but remains moderate: 41% of respondents trust lawyers, 36% trust the police and 31% trust the judiciary and prosecutor’s office. Also, the majority express positive opinions towards lawyers (78%), police (74%), judges (71%) and prosecutors (69%). But almost half have a negative attitude towards politicians. Gender, age, or ethnicity continue not to influence trust in judges and prosecutors in at least one-third of respondents. At the same time, approximately every third respondent says they have less trust in a judge or prosecutor belonging to an ethnic minority (33%). The perception of the independence of judges and prosecutors has improved compared to 2023 (54% consider them totally or somewhat independent), but opinions remain polarized.
The evaluation of the work of the courts is more favourable than in the past: the majority of respondents consider that the courts have competent specialists (79%), are accessible to everyone (73%), efficient (66%), serve the public interest (63%), are impartial (61%) and fair (59%). At the same time, similar to the previous survey, respondents believe that the courts are not fast enough (57%) and not transparent enough (48%). At the same time, in the last three years, 53% of respondents have interacted with notaries, 41% with the police, 20% with a court, and 12% with the prosecutor’s office.
Similar to the previous survey, the majority of respondents have heard about the reforms in the justice sector and anti-corruption (76%) and the Strategy on ensuring the independence and integrity of the justice sector (70%), but only a minority know the details. The level of information about the justice reform remains uneven: just under half (45%) are somewhat or very well informed about the reform, and 55% are little or not at all informed. The main sources of information about the reform are social networks (62%), television (56%) and news sites (42%).
The level of trust in vetting carried out to verify the integrity of judges and prosecutors remains moderate, but registers a slight increase. Just under half of respondents (45%) say they have a lot of confidence in vetting results, which is a slight increase of 5 p.p. compared to the previous survey. At the same time, 39% have little confidence in the results of vetting, and 14% do not trust it. Consistently, respondents who are more informed about justice reform have more confidence in vetting, which could suggest that public information directly influences the perceived legitimacy of integrity tools.
Finally, the majority of respondents consider that the justice reform is important for the accession of the Republic of Moldova to the EU (85%), although this share is slightly lower than in 2023 (-10 p.p.). Public expectations from the government for the next stage of reform are mainly oriented on three priorities: reducing corruption (48%), punishing high-profile cases (42%) and excluding people with no integrity from the justice system (39%).
The survey was conducted by Magenta Consulting for the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), within the project “Ensuring the integrity, efficiency and independence of the justice system in Moldova – #Justice4Moldova”, funded by the European Union and co-financed by Soros Foundation Moldova. The content of the study belongs to the authors and does not necessarily reflect the point of view of the European Union and Soros Foundation Moldova.
