At the beginning of January, decisions of the population in the referendum on the entry of the country to the European Union and their opinions on the implemented pre-accession talks were surveyed in these three countries. The intention to participate in the referendum about accession to the European Union was stated by 79 % of the Czech population, but only 42 % of those asked firmly decided to participate.

The results of the survey show that none of the current pretenders to the post of the president enjoys prevailing support of the public. In case of all the monitored candidates, whom the respondents considered for the post of the president individually, the number of adversaries was always higher than the number of supporters. The relatively highest preferences of all the considered persons were achieved by Otakar Motejl and Petr Pithart (both 43 %), followed by Václav Klaus (35 %), Miloš Zeman (29 %), Jaroslav Bureš (25 %), Jaroslava Moserová (16 %) and Miroslav Kříženecký (12 %).

All respondents having the right to vote were traditionally 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.

The Public Opinion Research Centre was investigating the decision-making of the electorate throughout the ‘super election’ year 2002. With the benefit of hindsight, we would like to compare how voters made their decisions prior to the June election to the Chamber of Deputies and the autumn elections to the Senate and municipalities. At which stage of the election campaigns did voters decide whom to vote for? Do they decide in the last minute or do they know well in advance whom to support? In the event of elections to the Senate and municipalities, decisions on who will get my vote are made significantly later than in elections to the Chamber of Deputies.

39% of people who could lose a job in the next two years are concerned about this possibility. 47% of respondents, who are also concerned about possible unemployment, on the other hand stated that they were not worried about losing a job. In the case of losing a job, people would mostly try to get a new one, usually a specific job that would correspond to their idea of a new job defined in advance (53%).

27% of respondents believe that most unemployed do not work because they do not want to work, 49% believe that those who cannot find a corresponding or suitable job prevail amongst the unemployed, and 18% believe that the main reason for unemployment is that the unemployed cannot find any job at all. Czech citizens are mostly convinced that both, to find employment in the region in which they live and also to find a job in their specialist field irrespective of a region is difficult.

Approximately two thirds of (66%) of inhabitants older than fifteen consider unemployment in the CR to be too high, approximately one quarter (27%) consider it to be adequate. 56% of respondents presume that in the next two years there will be a small increase in unemployment, 29% of respondents stated that the unemployment levels in the next two years would not change considerably and only 2% contemplate its decrease in the next two years.

In December survey the CVVM SOÚ AV ČR focused (among other issues) also – in connection with the upcoming end of Václav Havel’s constitutional mandate – on the evaluation of the president’s work according to six selected criteria. The number of positive opinions in the case of the president strongly prevailed, in particular in such attributes, where the interviewees evaluated his performance of constitutional functions, maintaining the authority and respectability of the presidential office and above all presentation in abroad.

The intention of the Ministry of Health to introduce uniform prices for the same medicaments in various pharmacies was agreed with by 76 % and disagreed with by 13 % of citizens. 11 % did not have an opinion. Uniform prices of medicaments were more often supported by people over 60 years of age, citizens with secondary education and the population with a poor standard of living. From the point of view of political preferences, these are predominantly supporters of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia and Czech Social Democrats.

In late November and early December, 40% of those polled said they were satisfied with the current political situation in the Czech Republic (‘very satisfied’ – 2.4%, ‘quite satisfied’ – 37.5%), whereas 56% were dissatisfied (‘quite dissatisfied’ – 44.6% and ‘very dissatisfied’ – 11.8%) and 4% did not know. The satisfaction with the political situation has been gradually growing since March 2002, and has reached 40% for the first time since 1996.