In the September survey, the Public Opinion Research Centre concentrated particularly on the importance of beer and pubs for Czech culture and tradition. An absolute majority of respondents (ninety and more percent) think that beer is a national drink and represents one of the things that Czechs can boast about abroad. On the other hand, a noticeable number of respondents said that much too great an importance was placed on beer in the Czech Republic (63 %) and that drinking large amounts of beer was a bad characteristic of the population of the Czech Republic (67 %).

Within the topical survey of cultural, social and historical aspects of Czech pubs and beer, questions were asked about the image of a Czech pub in the eyes of the public, and obviously the most often given association relating to a Czech pub was beer. The survey shows that pubs function as a sort of mediator of aid of all kinds, moreover as a place of winding down from every day concerns. Another three important aspects of Czech pubs as seen by people include their cultural and traditional dimension, information potential and the possibility of creating hinterlands for meeting friends, acquaintances - etc.

74 % of respondents said that they sometimes drank beer, 26 % did not, and beer is significantly more often drunk by men (90 %) than by women (58 %). About one half of the Czech population drink on average a litre or more during one week, while 24 % described their consumption as being between 1 to 2.5 litres, 13 % fit the range of three to five, 10 % drink between five and a half to ten and 3 % of consumers more than ten litres.

In its September survey, the Public Opinion Research Centre paid attention to restaurants, pubs and beer drinking. To start with, we asked all respondents which restaurant or pub they would visit if they had a chance of choosing. Almost one quarter of respondents answered that they did not go to any pubs or restaurants. However, the almost the same number of respondents said that best of all they liked popping into a pub, tavern or beer-house.

Generally, critical views prevailed over positive opinion on the evaluation of the current economic situation. The lowest degree of dissatisfaction was recorded in Hungary (40% - bad economic situation but only 4% good), and the highest in Slovakia (70% bad, 2% good). The opinion of the Polish and the Czech general public could be inserted between the previous two and at the moment is rather similar.

For several months already Czech citizens have been expressing the highest level of confidence in the president of our country. He is regarded as trustworthy by three quarters of the respondents. In our September survey the most significant rise of the level of confidence was recorded in case of the government, now trusted by more than a third of the respondents. The least trustworthy institutions are both chambers of the Parliament.

All respondents having the right to vote were asked an open question (i.e. without a list of political parties being used) investigating which party they would vote for if an election to the Chamber of Deputies took place the following week. The structure of the answers given is summarised in the table.

The question ‘Imagine that an election to the Chamber of Deputies is held next week. Would you participate?’ was answered yes by 60% of those surveyed having the right to vote (‘definitely yes’ by 28% and ‘probably yes’ by 32%), while 31% said no (17% ‘probably not’ and 14% ‘definitely not’) and 9% did not know.

The results indicate that people attach a relatively greater importance to elections to the Chamber of Deputies than to elections to the European Parliament. Not only do citizens express more willingness to participate in elections to the Chamber of Deputies (66%) than to the European Parliament (57%), they also more frequently consider a high turnout a positive in case of national elections (70%) than in case of European elections (61%).

In June survey of the Public Opinion Research Centre we asked Czech citizens, besides other questions, also about how they trust the selected Czech and European institutions. The respondents might express their confidence or non-confidence with the help of the numerical range from 1 to 10 – 1 meaning that the interviewee does not trust the relevant institution at all and 10 on the contrary expressing absolute confidence.

The majority of Czech citizens are sceptical on how they view the possible harmony of future decisions of the European Union with the interests of the Czech Republic and their own interests. Only 30 % of respondents believe that the future decisions of the European Union will comply with the interests of the Czech Republic, while 62 % do not believe so. In relation to their own interests, respondents’ opinions sound a little more sceptical.