Currently, 55% of Czechs trust Pavel and 38% do not. Credit: vlada.cz.
Prague, Oct 19 (CTK) – Of the top politicians in the Czech Republic, President Petr Pavel remains the most trusted by the public. The president is trusted by over half the country’s population, and is the only politician for whom trust outweighs distrust, according to a survey conducted by the CVVM polling agency between July and September this year.
After Pavel, the most trusted are opposition leader and former PM Andrej Babis (ANO), and the leader of the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), Tomio Okamura.
Compared to the previous poll from April and May, trust in politicians from the ruling parties in particular has dropped significantly.
Currently, 55% of Czechs trust Pavel and 38% do not.
Second-place Babis is trusted by 42% of respondents and distrusted by 53%. Some 35% of people trust Okamura and 56% do not. Since the last poll, the share of trust for Pavel and Babis has dropped slightly – by 1 percentage point – and for Okamura it has remained the same.
Fourth most trusted is currently Senate Speaker Milos Vystrcil (ODS) with 22% trust and 46% distrust, followed by Regional Development Minister Ivan Bartos (Pirates) with 22% trust and 67% distrust .
Vystrcil and Bartos were among the politicians whose trust rating dropped the most compared to the previous survey, by up to a third.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) was trusted by 19% of respondents, the same as Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky (Pirates) and Health Minister Vlastimil Valek (TOP 09).
However, Fiala, along with lower house Speaker Marketa Pekarova Adamova (TOP 09), has the highest share of distrust among the top politicians, as 77% of people do not trust them. Since the last survey, distrust in Fiala has risen by 9 percentage points, and in Pekarova Adamova by 8 percentage points.
At the bottom of the list are Legislation Minister Michal Salomoun (Pirates) and Europe Minister Martin Dvorak (STAN), both of whom are trusted by 5% and distrusted by roughly one-fifth of respondents, though both with a much higher share of people (around two-thirds) who do not know them.
The survey was conducted from 28 July to 25 September, with the participation of 985 Czech residents over 15.
