In the current survey, 11% of people agreed with the possibility of Ukrainian refugees’ permanent settlement in the Czech Republic, and 71% preferred their temporary admission followed by return to their country of origin. Photo: An outdoor photographic exhibition entitled “Kyiv Is an Unbroken Heart of Europe” on Moravske namesti in Brno this Spring. Credit: Vorlak Treng.
Prague, June 29 (CTK) – Czech support for accepting refugees from war-stricken Ukraine has declined to 56%, 19 percentage points less than last spring, shortly after the start of the Russian invasion, according to survey data from CVVM, collected from the end of January until 20 March and released yesterday.
A year ago, one-tenth of respondents were in favour of the permanent settlement of Ukrainians in the Czech Republic, and roughly three-quarters were in favour of their temporary admission followed by return to Ukraine as soon as possible.
In the current survey, 11% of people agreed with the possibility of Ukrainian refugees’ permanent settlement in the Czech Republic, and 71% preferred their temporary admission followed by return to their country of origin.
The opinion that the Czech Republic should not accept refugees from Ukraine at all was supported by 17% of respondents, up from 13% at the same time last year.
The CVVM poll shows that support for the permanent reception of refugees is more common among young people, university graduates, people interested in politics and those who are interested in developments in Ukraine and the situation of refugees.
However, public interest in developments related to Ukrainian refugees has fallen from 66% to 39%.
“In a long-term comparison, it is evident that after the initial upsurge last spring, which put the interest in the development of the situation around refugees from Ukraine very high even among various events in the international context, this specifically oriented interest has declined and has reached a level that is lower than the interest in the development of the situation around refugees in general in the years 2015 to 2019,” said the polling agency’s report.
According to them, Czech public interest in the developments surrounding refugees from Ukraine is now clearly lower than interest in the situation in Ukraine itself, which 59% of respondents say they have. Yet even this interest has declined by 19 points since last spring.
The CVVM poll was conducted on 861 Czech residents aged over 15 between 31 January and 20 March.
