In late April, a half of the electorate was determined which party to vote for, whereas roughly a quarter admitted they might change their mind. 17% said they were unlikely to vote and almost a tenth does not know. Compared to the last survey, conducted in late March and early April, the percentage of the decided voters increased by 6 points, while the number of the undecided decreased.

In the opinion of about 40% of respondents, the KSCM continues to be the most unacceptable party for our citizens. A fifth up to a fourth would never vote the ODS. The SPR-RSC is considered unacceptable by roughly a tenth of respondents.

We found out that 13% of citizens consider the taxes that are imposed on those with high income to be too high, 24% as adequate and 42% to be low, out of which 15% consider them to be “too low”. Taxation on people with average income is almost unanimously characterised as high by two fifths (44%) or adequate (40%), 4% characterise them as low. Two thirds (67%) of people view taxes of people with low income as high, 17% as adequate and only 2% as low.

At the end of April, the efforts of our country aimed towards the integration in the European Union were supported by 56 % of citizens, with 28 % disagreeing and 16 % not having an opinion on the matter. Although the overall attitude of the public cooled a little compared with the end of February, the support stays on a steady majority level. However, if citizens were to vote in a referendum held these days, they would act in a significantly more reserved manner.

The public is of the opinion that the ODS and the CSSD are two undisputed champions in the election, with the former being closer to victory. Somewhat fewer respondents believed in the success of the Coalition. It is widely believed that the election will not result in a change in the current state of affairs.

Within its regular survey, the Public Opinion Research Centre again focused on the level of the public’s confidence in individual constitutional institutions. The president is trusted by 51% and not trusted by 47%. In comparison with the previous survey, the level of public confidence in the head of the state has not experienced any significant developments. The government is trusted by 41% and not trusted by 56% of the respondents.

In late April, 34% of those polled said they were satisfied with the current political situation in the Czech Republic (‘very satisfied’ – 1%, ‘quite satisfied’ – 33%), whereas 60% were dissatisfied (‘quite dissatisfied’ – 45% and ‘very dissatisfied’ – 15%) and 6% did not know.

The conflicts in progress have considerably higher support with the Czech public, than those that are only in the stage of preparation. According to a half of Czech citizens an attack on Iraq would not contribute to suppressing terrorism in the world. The support for Czech participation in the upcoming conflict in Iraq was significantly lower than in case of the Afghanistan conflict.

Results show that the most critical evaluation by employees was concerning their salaries, both when assessing their current pay level and, in particular, the prospects for its increase and also job security. In response to the question about the care employees receive from their companies, we recorded an approximately balanced proportion of those who were satisfied and those who were not. When other aspects of current employment were surveyed, satisfaction prevailed; almost three quarters of respondents were satisfied with the interesting aspects of their work or how their skills and qualifications were utilised.

During 22 – 29 April 2002, the Public Opinion Research Centre conducted a regular monthly survey of what the Czech public thinks. This was part of the ‘Our society 2002’ survey and the respondents were selected on a quota basis. A total of 953 persons eligible to vote expressed their opinions on party preferences.