Dienstbier still clearly most popular among Czech politicians

Prague, March 20 (CTK) - Social Democrat (CSSD) senator Jiri Dienstbier is considered the most trustworthy Czech politician, yet his popularity dropped from January when the direct presidential election was held, a STEM opinion poll released Wednesday showed.

But Dienstbier will not be included in the next polls because he did not defend the post of CSSD deputy chairman at the party's congress last weekend. According to STEM, he has been the most popular among Czech politicians since September 2011.

The STEM poll assesses only the popularity of cabinet ministers and heads and deputy heads of parliamentary parties.

Despite his popularity, Dienstbier did not advance to the presidential election runoff, winning the fourth position in the first round.

Dienstbier is now trusted by 58 percent of Czechs, compared to 66 percent two months ago.

He is followed by former justice minister Jiri Pospisil (Civic Democrats, ODS) and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09) who lost in the presidential election runoff to Milos Zeman (extra-parliamentary Party of Citizens' Rights, SPOZ).

Schwarzenberg's popularity markedly increased thanks to the presidential campaign.

Both Pospisil and Schwarzenberg are now trusted by about half of the citizens.

Members of the CSSD leadership, including the party's leader Bohuslav Sobotka and first deputy head Michal Hasek, and lower house chairwoman Miroslava Nemcova (ODS) won confidence of two-fifths of the people, the poll showed.

The popularity of Communist (KSCM) leader Vojtech Filip fell to 25 percent, yet he closes the TOP 10 popularity chart.

Only 9 percent of respondents said they trusted Public Affairs (opposition VV) leader Vit Barta and 12 percent said they trusted Deputy Prime Minister and LIDEM chairwoman Karolina Peake.

Apart from Peake, the least trustworthy cabinet ministers are Miroslav Kalousek (TOP 09, finance), Alena Hanakova (TOP 09, culture), Kamil Jankovsky (LIDEM, regional development) and Petr Mlsna (LIDEM, legislative council). However, Mlsna is not known by most people and Jankovsky is rather unknown, too.

The poll was conducted on 1032 respondents in early March.

Most popular Czech top politicians from May 2012 to March 2013 (STEM polling agency, in percent):
May 12 Sept 12 Nov 12 Jan 13 March 13
1. Jiri Dienstbier (CSSD) 51 54 58 66 58
2. Jiri Pospisil (ODS) 40 50 51 54 51
3. Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09) 33 32 34 45 49
4. Bohuslav Sobotka (CSSD) 44 42 44 48 42
5. Marie Benesova (CSSD) 40 40 41 46 40
6. Miroslava Nemcova (ODS) 43 42 37 41 40
7. Michal Hasek (CSSD) 41 41 43 44 40
8. Lubomir Zaoralek (CSSD) 35 38 38 46 39
9. Zdenek Skromach (CSSD) 34 33 34 38 33
10. Vojtech Filip (KSCM) 31 29 31 31 25