July 2000
› Excerpt from “Central European Public Opinion”,
a special issue of “Polish Public Opinion”, created and published
by CBOS
The three societies of the Visegrad Group express critical opinions on
those who rule their countries. The Hungarian government is evaluated
the highest, although even in that country over half of respondents
expressed negative opinions about its functioning. The cabinets in the
Czech Republic and, especially, in Poland are evaluated even worse. The
governments are criticised irrespective of the political option they
represent. The present government of the Czech Republic has been formed
by the social democratic party, while Poland and Hungary are ruled by
coalitions of parties that identify themselves with the right. Some
differences can be noticed in the dynamics of the evaluations of the
governments. The ratings of the left-wing government of Milos Zeman in
the Czech Republic have recently improved, while in Poland we can speak
of a growing crisis in the social perception of Jerzy Buzek’s government
over the last year.
EVALUATIONS OF THE ACTIVITY OF THE
GOVERNMENT
“Difficult to say” answers are not shown
Not only the governments are criticised in the three countries, but also
the opposition. The right-wing opposition in the Czech Republic is
criticised the most, but also the left-wing opposition in Hungary and
Poland is evaluated negatively by most of the society.
HOW DO YOU EVALUATE THE CURRENT
ECONOMIC SITUATION OF YOUR COUNTRY?
“Neither good nor bad" and “Difficult to say” answers are not
shown.
Asked to evaluate living conditions of their household, the Czechs
(52%), Hungarians (53%) and Poles (49%) most frequently described them
as average neither good nor bad. However, in Hungary and Poland, other
respondents expressed negative opinions much more often than positive
ones (38% : 9% in Hungary and 32% : 19% in Poland, respectively). Only
in the Czech Republic there is a balance between negative and positive
opinions. Projections concerning changes in the standard of living are
also rather pessimistic. Hungarians and Poles are the most pessimistic
in this respect.
Although only a small percentage of Polish, Czech and Hungarian
respondents evaluate the economic situation of their country as good,
the opinions on the condition of the national economy differ rather
considerably from country to country. In Poland and the Czech Republic
negative evaluations prevail – they significantly outnumber both
positive and ambivalent opinions. On the other hand, in Hungary the
prevailing opinion is that the economic situation of the country is
average neither good nor bad. In the Czech Republic and Hungary a
systematic improvement of economic moods can be observed. The
evaluations of the present economic situation and the forecasts for its
future development improve. At the same time, the views on the economic
prospects for the nearest future remain in Poland as negative as in
1999.
PREDICTIONS CONCERNING DEVELOPMENT
OF THE ECONOMIC SITUATION OF THE COUNTRY IN THE NEXT YEAR
“No change” and “Difficult to say” answers are not shown.
