Polls & Research

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The Czech Republic’s ruling party has failed to recover lost public support, according to a poll by Median. 35.6 per cent of respondents would support the opposition Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) in this year’s legislative election, while 28.3 would vote for the governing Civic Democratic Party (ODS).

Support for the CSSD has remained unchanged since May, while backing for the ODS is down 3.9 points. The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) is third with 12.7 per cent, followed by the Christian and Democratic Union - Czech People’s Party (KDU-CSL) with 6.2 per cent, and the Green Party (SZ) with 4.7 per cent.

In June 2006, Czech voters renewed the Chamber of Representatives. Final results gave the ODS 35.58 per cent of all cast ballots, followed by the CSSD with 32.32 per cent. Czech parties require at least five per cent of the vote to earn seats under the country’s proportional representation system. The final tallies gave the ODS, the KDU-CSL and the SZ 100 seats in the lower house, with the remaining 100 seats going to the CSSD and the KSCM.

The tie among rival factions led to a long political stalemate. In January 2007, Czech president Vaclav Klaus re-appointed ODS leader Mirek Topolanek as prime minister.

In March 2009, Topolanek’s government finally lost one of many non-confidence motions tabled by the opposition since 2007. The last motion was related to alleged wrongdoing by lawmaker Petr Wolf, who left the CSSD and usually supports the government in the Chamber of Representatives. Opposition lawmakers also voted against the government to protest what they regard as failed economic policies to deal with the global financial crisis.

Each European Union (EU) member state presides over the Council of the EU for a period of six months, in accordance with a pre-established rotation. On Jan. 1, the Czech Republic took over these responsibilities from France.

In April, the leaders of the ODS, KDU-CSL, SZ and CSSD agreed to form an interim cabinet of non-partisan members. Klaus appointed Jan Fischer—a non-partisan, little known public servant who had been heading the Czech Statistical Office (CSU)—to serve as interim prime minister.

On May 8, Fischer took office. His term will end in October, when a new legislative election will take place.

Stefan Fuele, minister for EU affairs in the interim cabinet, recently proposed that the Fischer administration appoint the country’s new European Commissioner. On Jun. 15, the leadership of both the ODS and the CSSD opposed the idea, saying that the new elected government should perform that task in the fall. ODS leader Jiri Paroubek declared: "My opinion differs from minister Fuele’s."

Polling Data

What party list would you vote for in the next parliamentary election?

Source: Median
Methodology: Interviews with 1,142 Czech adults, conducted from May 2 to Jun. 1, 2009. No margin of error was provided.