Political

In a February survey of the Public Opinion Research Centre, Czech citizens presented their opinions on, inter alia, the election to the European Parliament. Respondents were first asked whether they wanted to participate in the election.

In February 2004, 60% of Czech citizens expressed willingness to participate in the election to the European Parliament. On the other hand, a quarter of Czech voters (26%) did not want to vote.

The absolute majority of the Czech public rejects the deployment of Czech soldiers for combat in Afghanistan, while support for this step was voiced by less than a fifth of respondents (17 %), opinions against were expressed by three quarters (75 %) of citizens. Resentment to sending a Czech special unit to Afghanistan clearly prevails among supporters of all political parties, with the strongest disagreement being voiced by supporters of the KSČM (90 % against, 7 % for), followed by followers of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) (78 % against, 14 % for), Christian Democratic Party- Czechoslovak People’s Party (KDU-ČSL) (73 % against, 23 % for) and ODS (70 % against, 24 % for).

In February 2004 Czech citizens expressed the highest level of confidence in the president of the country (71 %). The lowest number of the respondents expressed confidence in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Both institutions are now trusted by only a fifth of the respondents. Compared to January 2004 there was a significant drop in the level of the public’s confidence in the Czech government (it is currently regarded as trustworthy by 26 % of citizens).

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 66% of those surveyed having the right to vote (‘definitely yes’ by 28% and ‘probably yes’ by 38%), while 26% said no (15% ‘probably not’ and 11% ‘definitely not’) and 8% did not know.

In January 2004, all respondents were asked the following question: ‘Do you think that during last year the following areas improved, deteriorated or remained unchanged in the Czech Republic?’ The respondents are of the opinion that no major changes occurred in most of the monitored areas. The absolute majority of those polled did not register any change in respect of the observance of human rights, the possibility of citizens to participate in the decision-making process about public affairs, culture, political situation in the Czech Republic and our relations with foreign countries.

The general political orientation of the Czech population is one of the topics the Public Opinion Research Centre has been systematically monitoring. In the left-right political spectrum, the Czech population is divided in a way that corresponds with most patterns in the population. The largest group of people shows average figures and their numbers are gradually decreasing towards the edges. In total, the number of left-wing respondents is slightly smaller than the number of right-wing respondents.

Monitoring citizen satisfaction with the exercising of the democratic rights forms a regular part of polls conducted by the Public Opinion Research Centre. The possibility to speak openly about problems and shortcomings in the society was positively assessed by 6 out of 10 persons polled in January 2004. A third of respondents were also satisfied to be able to influence how issues are solved in their village or town.

Those polled who preferred or sympathised with a particular political party were, as part of our January survey, asked a repeated question examining the intensity of the relation with this political party.

Only 12% of voters called themselves staunch party supporters. Almost every third voter (32%) now prefers a particular political party just because it annoys them the least (i.e. there is no party that the voter would ‘like’).

At present it is president Václav Klaus, who is viewed as the most trustworthy person among our top politicians. He enjoys confidence of seven out of ten respondents and since our last survey in October of last year his credibility has grown of 14 % points together with parallel drop of 13 % points as far as the number of people, who do not trust him, is concerned. Václav Klaus has for the first time reached the first rank on our imaginary rank, outrunning the permanently highly evaluated minister Gross.

In January 2004, 60% of Czech citizens expressed willingness to participate in the election to the European Parliament. On the other hand, a quarter of Czech voters do not want to vote. The remaining 15% of respondents were still undecided. The declared willingness to participate in the election to the European Parliament does not match the willingness to participate in an election to the Chamber of Deputies.