Political

We have long been monitoring the trustworthiness various social institutions enjoy among the public. The last survey investigating this issue was conducted by the Public Opinion Research Centre in March.

People place the greatest trust in persons they know (88% of respondents trust most of them) and in the president (75%). They generally consider the army (61%) and our media, namely television (64%) and newspapers (59%), to be trustworthy.

The Czech public takes rather a critical view of the last year’s development in all of the monitored areas, except the environmental care where 38% of those polled thought the situation was improving as opposed to 10% of respondents who believed to the contrary. The worst results were achieved in the labour policy where almost four out of five polled persons stated that the situation was deteriorating.

In March 2004, 61% of Czech citizens expressed willingness to participate in the election to the European Parliament. On the other hand, over a quarter of the Czech electorate (28%) did not want to vote. The remaining 11% of respondents were still undecided. However, the real turnout tends to be lower than that revealed in polls. In respect of the election to the European Parliament, party preferences more or less copy the March popularity of individual parties in connection with the election to the Chamber of Deputies.

Several times in a year we interrogate Czech citizens about whether they confide in the selected political leaders. This time the submitted list included the names of 27 politicians, who hold prime positions within the parties represented in the Chamber of Deputies.

Besides ČSSD leaders Stanislav Gross (regarded as trustworthy by 58 % of the respondents) and prime minister Špidla (31 %) it is also Miroslav Topolánek (40 %) who features at the top of the popularity chart.

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.

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.

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).

Dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs outweighs satisfaction in all the monitored areas except the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union. The greatest dissatisfaction is expressed in respect of the current unemployment rate. Over four fifths of those polled are dissatisfied and a half of Czech citizens very dissatisfied with the current unemployment rate. Three quarters of respondents also voiced their dissatisfaction with the extent of corruption in our country and approximately 6 out of 10 Czech citizens gave a negative assessment of the functioning of the Czech economy and the quality of social security.