Neither a referendum on leaving the EU nor the adoption of the euro are on the political agenda in the Czech Republic. Photo credit: Freepik.
Prague, May 24 (CTK) – Czechs are in favour of remaining in the European Union (EU) by a margin of almost 2:1, according to an analysis for a project by the Europeum Institute in cooperation with the STEM polling institute released yesterday. If a referendum were held in the Czech Republic on leaving the EU, 63% of respondents said they would vote to stay.
Less than a fifth of people are currently in favour of adopting the euro in the Czech Republic. Neither a referendum on leaving the EU nor the adoption of the euro are on the political agenda in the country.
According to the survey, Czechs are generally rather optimistic about the EU, with 56% of respondents expressing this opinion. “The analysis shows that people who have an optimistic or strongly optimistic attitude towards the European Union perceive developments in Czech society after 1989 more positively than negatively,” said Vit Havelka, a research fellow at the Europeum Institute for European Policy.
In addition to Czech attitudes towards the EU, the survey also looked at Ukrainian migration and green transition issues. On migration, the majority of Czechs still support accepting Ukrainian refugees.
However, Jaromir Mazak, director of the STEM research agency, believes that while support for accepting Ukrainian refugees has been stable over time, it is actually quite fragile. “More than half of the public is concerned about the negative impact of migration from Ukraine on the quality of public services and on the economy as a whole,” he said.
There are about 325,000 refugees from Ukraine in the Czech Republic, according to the Interior Ministry. More than two-fifths of Czechs (44%) are willing to help even at the cost of a slight decline in their own standard of living.
By contrast, 67% of Czechs think the state does more for Ukrainian migrants than for its own citizens. “In the long run, Czechs do not perceive Ukrainian refugees as beneficial. Only 28% think refugees from Ukraine will be beneficial for the Czech Republic in the future,” Havelka said.
On the issue of green transformation, 77% of Czechs think climate change is a serious problem. However, the majority do not perceive the impact of climate change on their daily lives.
“Only 37% of respondents said they already perceive the impact on their lives. The most serious consequences, according to Czechs, are air, sea and ocean pollution. This is followed by deforestation and extreme droughts,” said the survey co-authors .
