Prague, Feb 8 (CTK) – Czechs keep considering regional and especially local authorities rather trustworthy and the parliament and central government rather untrustworthy and a majority of them trust President Milos Zeman once again, according to the latest CVVM institute’s poll released on Thursday.
The public confidence in the constitutional bodies did not show any marked change from December to January, apart from the Senate which became less trustworthy for the people.
Like in the previous poll conducted in December, 55 percent said they trusted Zeman, which is the level at which trust in Zeman was in March and April 2017. Due to a government crisis and Zeman’s clash with then prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD), trust in him steeply dropped to 40 percent last May. However, it kept growing in the following months. In late January, Zeman defended his post in the direct presidential election.
The pollsters said older generations, left-wing supporters, manual workers and people with lower education tend to trust Zeman more often as well as the voters of the CSSD, the ANO movement, the Communists (KSCM) and the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD).
Mayors are trusted by 64 percent of Czechs and local offices by 63 percent; 45 percent trust regional offices and 37 percent do not trust them, and 42 percent trust regional governors and 32 percent do not.
The minority government of Andrej Babis won trust of 32 percent, the Senate of 30 percent and the Chamber of Deputies of 29 percent.
In January, 14 percent said they were satisfied with the political situation, compared to 19 percent in December. Half of the people are dissatisfied with the political situation.
Trust in Czech constitutional bodies according to opinion polls that CVVM institute conducted from January 2017 to January 2018 (in percent):
Jan 17 Feb 17 March
17
Apr 17 May 17 June 17 Sept 17 Oct 17 Dec 17 Jan 18
President 53 54 55 55 41 48 51 50 55 55
Government 42 37 35 40 23 26 28 29 – 32
Chamber 31 26 27 30 21 23 21 23 31 29
Senate 32 30 28 30 27 30 25 29 35 30
Regional off. 42 43 38 44 41 44 42 44 46 45
Local off. 63 61 61 63 60 60 58 61 63 63
Mayors 64 64 60 65 61 61 60 60 64 64
Governors 42 40 40 43 40 42 42 42 44 42
kva/dr
