International Relations

Two-fifths of the Czech public tend to think that the responsibility for the existing conflict between Israel and Palestine is shared equally between the two warring parties, one fifth puts the blame on Palestinians and approximately one in twenty Czechs see Israel to be more responsible. Apart from this, disagreement with the practice of the Israeli army in the Palestinian territory dominates among our citizens (36 %) over the opposite opinion (21 %). 73 % think that there is a realistic possibility of further intensification of the conflict in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories. The opposite opinion is surpassed by the view that there is a danger of spreading the conflict into neighbouring countries. Expectations of achieving a peaceful solution for the Middle East crisis in the near future are rated by Czechs predominantly sceptically.

At the end of April, the efforts of our country aimed towards the integration in the European Union were supported by 56 % of citizens, with 28 % disagreeing and 16 % not having an opinion on the matter. Although the overall attitude of the public cooled a little compared with the end of February, the support stays on a steady majority level. However, if citizens were to vote in a referendum held these days, they would act in a significantly more reserved manner.

The conflicts in progress have considerably higher support with the Czech public, than those that are only in the stage of preparation. According to a half of Czech citizens an attack on Iraq would not contribute to suppressing terrorism in the world. The support for Czech participation in the upcoming conflict in Iraq was significantly lower than in case of the Afghanistan conflict.

The finding worth noting is the fact that only less than a quarter of respondents (24%) considers the current relations with Austria to be good. On the other hand, in principle a consensus of opinion dominates over the relations with Slovakia and Poland, which are seen as practically non-problematic.

At the end of February and beginning of March, the efforts of our country aimed towards the integration in the European Union were supported by 59 % of citizens, with 25 % disagreeing and 16 % not having an opinion on the matter. Consequently, the support stays on a steady majority level on the long-term basis. Negative attitudes after last year’s rise, influenced by the border protests against "Temelín nuclear power plant" and discussions about the so-called transitory period for free movement of labour forces, went back to the level of the previous years.