Today only 48% of Czechs feel satisfied with the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union, less than last year. According to the poll from the STEM research company, 7 out of 10 Czechs feel that they belong to the Union. Credit: Freepik.
Czech Rep, Nov 30 (BD) – The feeling among Czechs of belonging to the European Union has declined during the pandemic.
Less than half of the Czech population positively evaluates the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union (48%), and of these only 12% are firmly convinced of membership. 19%, on the other hand, view membership negatively.
“Are you personally generally satisfied with our membership of the European Union?”
Since accession, there has been a steady decline in Czech membership, which was interrupted during the Czech President of the Council of the European Union in 2009, under the government of Mirek Topolánek. Discontent also increased due to the migration crisis – in 2016 only 36% of Czechs said they were satisfied with membership of the union. In 2020, the pandemic crisis led to strong swings in sentiment in the country, as shown in the graph.
“Do you personally feel a sense of belonging to Europe, do you feel European?”
“Are you personally generally satisfied with our membership of the European Union?”
The demographic groups most satisfied with EU membership are the medium-high social segment, and young people with a medium-high education. A new phenomenon is the greater support among the +60 demographic compared to past surveys. However, the general dissatisfaction and decline in enthusiasm can be found equally in all socio-demographic groups.
“Are you personally generally satisfied with our membership of the European Union?”
Finally, according to the survey, Czech citizens would like the Czech Republic to be associated with values such as security and prosperity in the future. These aspects find broad social support regardless of the socio-demographic bracket asked, in particular prosperity. The issue of security, on the other hand, is more important to women and to less educated sections of the population.
However, most of the respondents said they would prefer a prosperous and modern and strong and safe Europe, compared to fewer who said they wanted to see a creative and intelligent Europe.
The research conducted by the non-profit research institute STEM was funded by the government, to gauge Czech attitudes towards the EU. The research was conducted on a sample of 1,019 people aged over 18, from August 25th to September 1st.
