In its March poll, the Centre for the Research of Public Opinion focused, inter alia, on the evaluation of local living conditions. The first question examined the overall satisfaction with life in the place of residence. The results show that 67% of respondents were satisfied with life in the place of residence, while almost a fifth (24%) opted for the answer ‘neither satisfied, nor dissatisfied’ and 9% were dissatisfied.

Also a block of questions on work and working environment was part of a March census performed by the Centre for Public Opinion Research SOU of the Academy of Sciences of the CR. These questions were answered only by those who were currently working as employees which, out of the total sample of 1056 respondents, were 492 respondents. Approximately a fifth of employees admit a possible change in their job description within 2 years.

Respondents’ opinions showed their prevailing conviction that “human relations in the Czech Republic are more bad than good”, compared with 41 % of respondents, who said that relations between people here are “definitely good” or “more good than bad”. The negative opinion was voiced by a total of 54 %, who described it as “more bad than good” or “definitely bad”.

The most significant change since 1992 occurred in the area of relation between parents and children - in 1992 there were only two percentage points more of those saying that these relations had got worse than those thinking they had become better.

In the March survey, among other things we concentrated on the satisfaction of citizens with the environment in the place where they live. The greatest contentment was recorded for availability of wide open countryside, scoring 86 %. Approximately three quarters of citizens are satisfied with the cleanness of the countryside in their vicinity and quality of drinking water. About two thirds of respondents are content with the air quality and the noise level in their neighbourhood.

The Czech public considers unemployment to be the most acute problem now. 84% of those polled believe that the unemployment must be tackled ‘very urgently’ and a further 12% believe that it needs to be tackled ‘quite urgently’. This year, the unemployment is followed by problems in the health sector that are considered even more serious than organised crime and corruption, which jointly ranked at the top of the ‘ladder’ in the year 2002.

As in the previous months, in March 2004 Czech citizens expressed the highest level of confidence in the president of the country. The inhabitants’ confidence in the president has been growing constantly and currently he is regarded as trustworthy by more than three quarters of the interviewees, which is the highest score since his entering into office. More than a half of the citizens also expressed confidence in their local council; the regional councils are regarded as trustworthy by 44 % of the respondents.

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 68% of those surveyed having the right to vote (‘definitely yes’ by 31% and ‘probably yes’ by 37%), while 25% said no (13% ‘probably not’ and 12% ‘definitely not’) and 7% did not know.

Only 29% of respondents think that the government cares for the social situation of their people in an adequate way, whilst two thirds (65%) of respondents think that it is insufficient, contrary to 4% who perceive it as excessive. Views on social care provided by the government to families with young children are even less favourable when only less than a quarter of respondents (24%) marked it as adequate, 71% respondents evaluated it as insufficient and 2% think it is excessive.

The latest census of the CPOR shows that more than a half of economically active Czech citizens are satisfied with their jobs. Another two fifths of respondents state that they are half satisfied and half unsatisfied. Job dissatisfaction was expressed only by 6% of respondents. Satisfaction with one’s job differs between those who are employees and those who are entrepreneurs managing small, medium or large enterprises; three quarters of entrepreneurs are satisfied with their jobs compared to only a half of those who are employees.

In its February survey, the Public Opinion Research Centre examined the public opinion on the activities of Charta 77. The respondents were, as was the case in 1993, asked two closed questions. The first question focused on the overall assessment of the activities of Charta 77, while the other investigated the reasons why people had signed the document.

28% of respondents say that Charta 77 prepared the demise of the communist regime; nearly a third (31%) are of the opinion that the activities of Charta 77 had no impact, 3% think that it endangered other citizens and 38% cannot judge the activities of Charta 77 (it is interesting to note that this figure stood at 51% in 1993).