In the June and July 2023 the Public Opinion Research Centre included a block of questions connected to NATO and defense of Czech Republic in general in its survey (find out more in previous article). Questions focused mainly on ability of the Czech Republic to defend its own sovereingty, attitudes towards defense expenditures, and exaluation of army's quality in comparison to developed western countries.
The Czech public largely agrees (84 %) that the sovereignty of the state must be defended at all costs. Compared to 2022, there has been a decrease of 9 percentage points after a significant increase. The situation is now at a level comparable to 2020.
Despite this, more than half (56 %) of respondents doubt the Czech Republic's ability to defend itself if something would happen, compared to two-fifths of respondents (40 %) who disagree with this statement. Compared to 2022, confidence in the Czech Republic's ability to defend itself has increased by 13 percentage points.
Less than half (47 %) of respondents do not consider the defence of the Czech Republic to be essential, as we are one of the small countries whose fate is in the hands of the superpowers anyway. Here there was an eight-point drop in scepticism.
Less than two-fifths of respondents (39 %) think that our army is on a comparable level with the armies of Western countries. Compared to the last survey, there has been an increase in disagreeing responses, i.e. the view that our army is not on a par with that of advanced Western countries (from 46 % to 52 %), with the highest proportion of such sceptical responses found so far
Almost half of the respondents (46 %) said that defence spending is an unnecessary burden on the state budget. Compared to the significant increase in support for military funding in 2022, the proportions in this year's survey revert back to previous trends from 2015-2020.
>> Full text is available in Czech only <<
- Download the full press release here: pm231002.pdf
- All reports from this survey: NS_2306
