Political

In a June 2004 survey of the Public Opinion Research Centre, the respondents were asked to say how often over the last four weeks before the election to the European Parliament they had paid attention to the activities described in table 1. Roughly a half of the polled citizens said that they had ‘sometimes’ watched the information about the European election on TV, read about it in newspapers and discussed it with friends or family.

Within a framework of a methodological experiment, a June survey of the Public Opinion Research Centre included a few questions concerning the issue of political systems. The print information analyses the evaluation of political systems that existed in the Czech Republic in the recent past, as well as some generally named variants. We also monitored the significance of some attributes of political systems, such as freedom or equality.

Monitoring public stances on certain general and political issues is commonly included in researches of public opinion. The array of questions included in the June survey of the Public Opinion Research Centre focused primarily on general economic issues, selected aspects of social security and personal responsibility, and on the issue of freedom. The results reveal that, inter alia, the Czech public strongly prefers the maximisation of freedoms and the concept of a state that protects the freedoms and rights of its citizens in the event of their violation to a state that pre-emptively limits their rights and freedoms.

In a June survey of the Public Opinion Research Centre, the citizens polled expressed their views on the issue of women in politics. Almost 44% of them believe that politics would change for the better if more women were involved. 5% of respondents took an anti-feminising attitude towards politics, thinking that politics would change for the worse in the event of more women being involved. 40% of those surveyed are of the opinion that politics would not change if more women participated in it.

In June, the Public Opinion Research Centre conducted a survey dealing with, inter alia, the issue of women in politics. The vast majority of Czech citizens (84%) hold the opinion that the involvement of women in public affairs is beneficial to society. On the other hand, only a tenth of respondents think that it is not beneficial. Less than a quarter of respondents believe that the participation of women in public life is sufficient.

In the June survey, among other things Public Opinion Research Centre devoted a few questions to the issue of the so-called Beneš Decrees. In connection with discussions about the Beneš Decrees there have been opinions particularly coming from abroad that those Decrees that form the legal framework for the expulsion, should be cancelled. The first question therefore was to establish opinions of the Czech public as to the further validity of these Decrees.

Traditionally, relations of the Czech Republic with Slovakia (94 %) and Poland (92 % of respondents) are rated as the best. A smaller number of respondents (86 %) described the relations of the CZ and Hungary as being very or quite good. The share of the negative assessment of the Czech-Hungarian relations is however on a similar level as in the case of the above mentioned Slovakia and Poland, which shows there is a relatively large group of respondents (10 %), who could not evaluate relations with Hungary.

The problems most often considered by respondents to be the major ones are as follows: unemployment, economic or general crime, corruption, state indebtedness and the reform of public funds, permanent quarrels among politicians, unstable government and the ongoing political crisis, problems in the health sector, politicians’ unconcern for ordinary people and poor work of the police and courts in the enforcement of law.

Surveys conducted by the Public Opinion Research Centre regularly examine which recent events are regarded by respondents as major ones. As regards specific events, the respondents most frequently mentioned the election to the European Parliament and accession of our country to the European Union. They also considered other events occurring in the local political scene to be important, in particular the resignation of Vladimir Špidla from the post of prime minister, the subsequent fall of the government, crisis in the CSSD and the election of Stanislav Gross as its new leader.

More than a half of the citizens (56 %) agree with accepting the Euro as the currency of the Czech Republic, on the other hand one third (35 %) is against. Support for introducing the Euro clearly decreases with older age and lower standards of living. The introduction of the Euro is very often supported by students, but relatively more frequently its introduction is approved by university graduates, managers or highly qualified professional workers and Civic Democratic Party (ODS) supporters.