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Public trusts government less than it trusts European Union

Poll: Czechs, Hungarians, Poles least positive about leaders

By Kimberly Ashton
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
January 30th, 2008 issue

While trust in their own government sags, Czechs are among the most optimistic when it comes to their faith in the European Union.
The new Eurobarometer poll, conducted in the fall and released Jan. 28, finds that only 21 percent of Czechs trust their own government, and 16 percent trusts Parliament. However, 58 percent trust the EU as a whole.
Such a trend appeared to be more prevalent in Eastern Europe than in the West. Along with the Czech Republic, the Polish and Hungarian governments got the worst ratings from their citizens. In Poland, 17 percent trusted their own government and 62 percent trusted the EU. In Hungary, the numbers were 21 percent and 60 percent, respectively.
The survey also found that, while Slovaks put about the same amount of trust in the EU as do Czechs, twice as many trust their own government.
Tomáš Kramár, member of the Czech anti-corruption civic association Oživení (Revival) said the poll numbers are probably indicative of a knowledge gap.
“I think the reason [for the results] is that people don’t know a lot about European politics so they have some idealistic image about it. They have a lot more information about their own government,” he said. “They hope [the EU] is better than our government.” Kramár feels there is some truth to such an idealist notion of a unified Europe. “I think actually it is better,” he said.
An earlier Eurobarometer survey found that youth (ages 15 to 25) in particular hold the EU in high regard.
Even as the Czech Republic readies to assume the presidency of the EU next year, only 26 percent of Czechs believe their country plays a significant roll in the union, the poll found.
As for trust in the union, opposite results were found among West European countries. More people in Austria, Germany and the United Kingdom trusted their own governments more than the EU.
The survey also found that about a third of Europeans want a unified fight against crime as well as common environmental and immigration policies, but that many EU citizens want maximum sovereignty in the areas of culture and education, according to Aktualne.cz.
Eurobaromater surveyed 1,016 Czechs for the poll.

Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com


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