Czech citizens and European Constitution
In February CVVM interrogated respondents about public opinions on european constitution.
More than a half of respondents agree with united constitution, that would be in force for every single
member of European Union. On the contrary a quarter of citizens is against it.
There is very low awareness of content of European constitution among most of czech citizens.
Six out of ten respondents expressed that they are not informed about European constitution at all, more than a third of citizens know hardly something about it.
Confidence in constitutional institutions and satisfaction with political situation
In February 2005, Czech citizens expressed the highest level of trust to the president of the country, who enjoyed confidence of 70 % of czech citizens. In comparism to previous month Czech goverment’s position slightly worsened, though it enjoys confidence from a third of czech citizens. In comparism to January 2005 the Chamber of Deputies registered more important fall of trustworthiness , when approximately a fifth of citizens trust to czech goverment according to our survey.
Public opinions and possible changes of current political system
According to January survey more than 80 % of citizens would gladly accept a chance to decide important problems in referendum. 8 out of 10 citizens criticise high expenses of pre-election campaign, 80% of respondents suggested limiting of these expenses. Almost three quarters of respondents wish, the President of the Czech Republic was elected by all voters.
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Enhancing public participation at local government elections
In January in its periodical survey CVVM devoted to the topic of electoral participation and non-participation. More than half of respondents expressed their opinion, what they find
as a desirable thing, that the Czech State should start campaign to raise electoral participation. On the other way 3 out of 10 respondents do not suppose it as
a desirable thing.More than tenth of czech citizens could not give their opinion to that question.
Electoral (non)participation
Most of the respondents addressed by CVVM in January supposed the electoral participation
to be quite low or very low in Czech Republic ( 42 actually 45% of .respondents).
More than two thirds of respondents assume low electoral participation to be a societal problem,
(25% definitely yes, 40% probably yes).According to more than the half of addressed respondents the causes of low participation in local autority elections are basically in that the citizens are disgusted with politics.
Party preferences in February 2005
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 (in %).
The question ‘Imagine that an election to the Chamber of Deputies is held next week.
Urgency of some problems out of citizen point of view
The most urgent problem is supposed to be unemployment and 70% of respondents supposed the sollution of unemployment to be very urgent, 26% rather urgent. Corruption(67% of respondents find it very urgent, 26 % rather urgent) is regarded as almost same urgent problem as unemployment together with organized crime (66% very urgent, 27 rather urgent) and health care (63% very urgent, 30 rather urgent) and criminality ( 57% very urgent, 37% rather urgent).
Public opinion on development of some monitored areas in year 2004
The Czech public evaluated development of environmental care most positively, when 37% of respondents thought the situation has improved in this area as opposed to 8 % of respondents who believed to the contrary and 49 % said there was no change in this area.
People are more satisfied than dissatisfied with foreign politics(19% : 14%) .The positive and negative opinions on the situation in area of the protection of human rights were almost balanced .
Popularity of politicians
In January survey, CVVM investigated whether the respondents confide in selected constitutional bodies. This time the submitted list included the names of 26 politicians
(all members of the government, president, ombudsman, chairmen of Senate and Chamber of Deputies, chairmen of Parlament Parties and euro-commissioner Špidla).
Now it is president Václav Klaus, who is viewed as the most trustworthy person among our top politicians.
Confidence in constitutional institutions and satisfaction with political situation
In January 2005 Czech citizens expressed the highest level of trust to the president of the country, when 7 out of 10 respondents expressed their confidence in him. Local councils were found trustworthy by almost two thirds of the interviewees and almost half of the polled citizens trusted their regional council. In comparison to the previous months, the government’s position got better, 34% of respondents expressed their trust in goverment.
Party preferences in January 2005
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 (in %).
The question ‘Imagine that an election to the Chamber of Deputies is held next week.
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