Political

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.

The number of declared participants of the referendum has not changed much since November; it still ranges between 77 - 80 % of people with the voting right. Neither was there a different distribution of votes between the groups for and against, the approximate division of respondents has remained the same: 60 % for, 20 % against, 20 % do not know. A half of the people want the EURO, a third rejects it.

As regards the activities of the state, there is widespread belief that no major developments occurred during last year. 45% to 58% of respondents are of the opinion that no progress was made in respect of the protection of human rights, fight with crime, immigration policy, economic and foreign policy and environmental care. The greatest criticism is levelled against the employment policy (64%) and the agricultural policy (47%).

The attack on Iraq is generally supported by a mere 21 % of Czech citizens, while 72 % disagree with it. Support for the attack without the mandate of the Security Council of the UN is even lower. In such a case, 10 % of respondents expressed their agreement with the attack, 83 % were against. Only 18 % of people think that the attack on Iraq will bring positive effects in relation to suppressing international terrorism, on the other hand 70 % are of the opinion that the war will not contribute to fighting world terrorism in any way.

After the February drop in the public’s confidence in the government the level of its trustworthiness has grown again – in March Špidla’s Cabinet was trusted by 47 % and not trusted by 49 % of the respondents. Similar growth has been recorded also in the case of the Chamber of Deputies, which enjoyed confidence of 40 % and was distrusted by 54 % of the interviewees. The Senate is regarded as trustworthy by 27 % of the respondents, which matches its evaluations in 2001 and 2002.

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 as assessment of the current state of some affairs and developments in our country, the environment became most positively evaluated area, receiving 36% of favourable opinions, 14% of unfavourable opinions; while roughly a half of respondents were unable to decide. In all other instances, the number of dissatisfied usually outweighed the number of satisfied by a large margin. The respondents were highly critical of the health sector (35%) and the functioning of authorities (33%).

None of the candidates, who in the beginning of February 2003 stood for the presidency, enjoyed strong public support. The number of supporters of any of the pretenders has not substantially surpassed the level of one third and in all cases these were outnumbered by their adversaries. Roughly the same level of preferences – a third of citizens – was achieved by candidates Petr Pithart, Otakar Motejl and Václav Klaus.