Prague, Oct 17 (CTK) – Almost 90 percent of Czechs would like the country to have a law on a general referendum, and more than 80 percent are against the introduction of the euro, including 51.5 percent of people radically opposing the step, according to a Datamar agency poll released by daily Pravo on Tuesday.
The outgoing centre-left cabinet of Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) originally planned to push through a general referendum law, but it never completed the task, the paper writes three days before the general election.
In the Datamar poll, 88.4 percent of respondents supported a referendum law as an element of direct democracy, though only 35.6 percent admitted having ever voted in a referendum, Pravo writes.
Czech law enables the holding of referenda on the local and regional levels.
Asked whether they support the Czech adoption of the euro, 85.2 percent of the respondents answered in the negative, with 51.5 percent saying their resolute “no,” the paper continues.
Only 14.8 percent are for the euro, including 4.6 percent who want its introduction definitely.
Czechs are evenly split on the question of whether the state should accept foreign labour, Pravo continues.
Six percent of those polled said they definitively agree with the acceptance, 13.9 percent said they agree and 31.4 percent “tend to” agree.
The remaining 48.8 percent are opposed to it, including 14 percent “absolutely” opposed, Pravo writes.
A verbal exchange over the acceptance of foreign workforce occurred recently between the election leaders of the two strong government partners, Social Democrat (CSSD) Lubomir Zaoralek and ANO chairman Andrej Babis.
Babis pushed for foreigners to be accepted to fill job vacancies shunned by Czechs. Opposing the plan, Zaoralek said cheap workforce would reduce the price of labour across the country, and in addition, thousands of foreign workers would pose a security threat, the paper writes.
Almost three-quarters (72 percent) of the Datamar respondents said they knew how high the monthly minimum wage in the Czech Republic is.
Out of them 92.1 percent voiced agreement with the planned increase in the minimum wage as of January.
The step is opposed by 7.9 percent of Czechs, including 2.2 percent of strict opponents, the poll showed.
It also surveyed Czechs’ attitude to the compulsory electronic registration of sales (EET), which some parties want to scrap or change at least after the elections.
As many as 99.3 percent of people know about the EET, with 57.5 percent wishing its preservation, 31 percent wishing its abolition and 11.5 percent being undecided on the issue, the poll showed.
The Datamar poll was conducted on 1,000 respondents on October 5-11, Pravo adds.
