Political

Czechs think that their cheap labour force and tourist attractions will be the major contributions to the European Union. Only a fraction of the population said that our traditions, moral values, religion, quality industrial products or quality agricultural products could be a contribution to the EU. In comparison, Slovaks put a considerable emphasis on their hard work and diligence, Poles accentuate their traditions, moral values, religion and quality agricultural products, while Hungarians take more pride, than Czechs, in their culture and arts, hard work, diligence, science and technical development.

In April 2004, Czech citizens expressed the highest level of confidence in the president of the country. Since Václav Klaus’ entering into office, the public’s confidence has been constantly growing and this growth has now apparently paused. In recent months the president of the republic has been enjoying confidence of approximately three quarters of Czechs. In April more than a half of the citizens also expressed confidence in their local council; the regional councils are regarded as trustworthy by 39 % 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 64% of those surveyed having the right to vote (‘definitely yes’ by 28% and ‘probably yes’ by 36%), while 27% said no (13% ‘probably not’ and 14% ‘definitely not’) and 9% did not know.

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.