Nine percent of Czechs think their lives would get worse if an equal marriage law were adopted, while four-fifths believe that the adoption of a law allowing gay or lesbian marriages would not affect their lives, and 11% expect an improvement, a Nielson and Publicis Groupe’s poll has shown.
This puts the public at odds with the discourse at the political level, where many opponents cite defence of the institution of marriage and concerns about the damage to society as key factors in the debate.
The agencies conducted the poll on 1,021 people over 18 last October, and the results were released to CTK on Sunday by their representative Ondrej Sveda today.
The “marriage for all” bill has recently been debated by the Chamber of Deputies, its second reading is due on Wednesday. The house’s constitutional and legal committee has not adopted any position on the bill; it did not find enough votes either to support the bill or a pair of amendments, of which one envisaged that same-sex couples would not enter into marriage, but into a partnership with all the rights and obligations of spouses, and the other envisaged unions also called partnerships, but without the possibility to adopt children.
According to the poll, more than half of Czechs would be happy if politicians could quickly resolve the issue and get on with other matters.Three in ten people do not care how quickly politicians resolve the issue. 11% of respondents said that the solution should not be rushed.
Of those surveyed, voters of the opposition Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) are most worried about the deterioration of their lives as a result of the law’s adoption. Among this group, 21% said their lives would worsen after the marriage for all law was passed. Almost a tenth of ANO supporters agreed, and 7% of supporters of the governing Spolu alliance. From the supporters of the Pirates and STAN, no one expects their lives to worsen.
Some respondents said that if their favourite political party did not support marriage for all, they would no longer vote for it, including a tenth of ANO voters and 19% of ODS voters.
According to the Jsme Fer (“We Are Fair”) initiative, almost two years have passed since the marriage for all bill was submitted. More than 170,000 people have signed a petition in support of equal marriage for same-sex couples, the initiative said.
