Political

Similarly, as in the previous two years, even this year citizens consider media to be the main guarantor of providing information about the integration of the country in the European Union. They also find the function of the government to be very important. More than two fifths of respondents included elected representatives of both chambers of the Parliament, and also scientific and educational institutions among the most important entities.

This time the interviewees were expressing their confidence in leaders of the political parties represented in the Chamber of Deputies. At the top of the popularity chart Miroslav Topolánek appeared in between ČSSD representatives Stanislav Gross and Vladimír Špidla. These are followed by the new KDU-ČSL leader Miroslav Kalousek, the Chamber of Deputies chairman Lubomír Zaorálek, KDU-ČSL members Jan Kasal and Foreign Affairs minister Cyril Svoboda.

Those surveyed believe that especially the situation in the health sector must be tackled now. They hold the opinion that crime in the country requires exceptionally urgent action too. Moreover, unemployment and social policies also belong to the dominant social problems. In terms of the importance of an urgent solution, the environment and taxes are considered a slightly less important issue. The problem of coming to terms with the past (vetting), and moral and ethical issues, such as abortions and registered partnership, are viewed as less important among the monitored areas.

After entering the EU, the Czech public expects that changes for the worse in the social and economic sectors are more likely than not. The only exception in the areas monitored in the survey is represented in this aspect by wages, which are more often expected to grow by people (35 %), than to drop (11 %) after entering the EU. The negative expectations clearly dominate in the price area, whether it concerns grocery (82 % anticipate price increases), energy prices (74 %), land (71 %) or public transport (60 %).

In comparison with the previous month, the level of citizens’ confidence in constitutional institutions remains practically unchanged. The highest level of the public’s confidence traditionally belongs to the president of the republic, who is trusted by two thirds of all the interviewees. The Senate of the CR enjoys confidence of only one fifth of the inhabitants. That means the level of confidence in the Senate is currently the lowest of all the monitored institutions within the whole monitoring period.

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 67% of those surveyed having the right to vote (‘definitely yes’ by 33% and ‘probably yes’ by 34%), while 27% said no (13% ‘probably not’ and 14% ‘definitely not’) and 6% did not know.

Despite his 4 % drop, the very top of the politicians popularity chart still belongs to Stanislav Gross (62 %). He is followed by president Václav Klaus and the ex-president Václav Havel (both scoring 55 %) and Petra Buzková enjoys 50% confidence.

In comparison with the April 2003 results there was a significant growth of the number of people trusting ministers Ambrozek and Mlynář. A rather significant public confidence drop, however, was experienced by minister Škromach, prime minister Špidla, ODS leader Topolánek, Senate chairman Pithart, president Klaus and minister Dostál.

People place the greatest trust in persons they know (88% of respondents trust most of them). They generally consider our media, namely television (66%) and newspapers (60%), the president (62%) and the army (58%) to be trustworthy. More than a half of respondents are of the opinion that they can believe the majority of people in our country (55%), whereas roughly two fifths are persuaded to the contrary.

The general political orientation of the Czech population is one of the topics the Public Opinion Research Centre has been systematically monitoring. October surveys conclude that in the right-left 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 (20%) and their numbers are gradually decreasing towards the edges.

Czech people attribute the highest level of trustworthiness to the president and local councils; that is what 6 out of 10 people declare. Four of ten people trust the Czech government and their regional council. After the significant September drop of the Czech citizens’ confidence in all the constitutional institutions (with the exception of the president of the republic) we registered a follow-up growth in their trust in these institutions.