Political

The question, if respondents are going to participate in the June referendum on the entry of the Czech Republic to the European Union, was answered as follows: 42 % of citizens with the voting right stated they would "definitely" participate, 35 % said they would "more likely" participate and 16 % would not take part. The group, which does not know whether it will participate or not, currently amounts to seven percent.

All respondents having the right to vote were traditionally 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.

In April, 18% of those polled were satisfied with the political situation, while 31% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. 47% of respondents voiced dissatisfaction. 59% of respondents said they were satisfied with their life, whereas 25% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. 18% of those polled considered themselves dissatisfied.

With the upcoming date of the referendum on the entry of the CZ to the EU, we have been monitoring flows between the group of those that claim they will "definitely" participate and those that are not completely certain about their participation and chose the answer option "will more likely participate in the referendum on the entry of the CZ to the EU”. However, the number of those that say they will participate in the referendum has not changed much since the end of last year and in April 78 % of respondents declared their participation.

Stanislav Gross remains at the top of the chart (he enjoys confidence of 66% of the respondents), followed by president Václav Klaus (60%) and ministers Tvrdík (54%) and Buzková (52%). The 50 % public confidence limit was further surpassed only by the ex-president Havel (52%). In comparison with the January 2003 results there was a significant growth in public confidence in the case of president Klaus (+25 % points), ODS leader Topolánek (+7 %) and ministers Šimonovský and Škromach (both +5 %).

In April survey we were again asking about the level of inhabitants’ confidence in individual constitutional institutions. The results show that the president is trusted by 64%, government by 40%, Chamber of Deputies by 32% and Senate by 24% of the respondents. Regional councils are regarded as trustworthy by 40% and local councils by 63% of the respondents.

All respondents having the right to vote were traditionally 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.

The actual attack on Iraq was supported by 24 % of Czech citizens in the first half of April, while 70 % did not agree with it. However, simultaneously the attack on Iraq without the mandate of the Security Council of the UN was labelled as acceptable only by 16 % of respondents, whereas 77 % expressed an opposite standpoint. Supporters of military action against Iraq most frequently named the reason for their opinion as the necessity to remove Saddam’s regime (29 %), the necessity of fighting terrorism (23 %), the necessity of securing international safety (14 %), inevitability and justification of a military solution of the problems with Iraq (9 %) or the necessity of eliminating Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (7 %).

People place the greatest trust in persons they know (88% of respondents trust most of them). More than a half of respondents (54%) are of the opinion that they can believe the majority of people in our country, whereas roughly two fifths are persuaded to the contrary. Those surveyed generally consider our media (62%) and the army (55%) to be trustworthy. A large proportion of respondents also trust the police (53%), as opposed to 43% who mistrust it.

The best results – with an average mark lower than 3 – were achieved by media and the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies. The worst marks of all the monitored institutions were scored by the Senate, KSČM and US – DEU (average marks above the 3.5 level in all these cases). In comparison to last year’s survey there has been a relatively significant improvement in the trustworthiness level of media, Chamber of Deputies chairman, ODS and KSČM.