French President Emmanuel Macron is the only foreign politician trusted by more than half of Czechs, while Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump are the most mistrusted world leaders, according to a survey released yesterday by the Public Opinion Research Centre (CVVM).
Macron is trusted by 52% of people and distrusted by 31%, while the rest do not know or are unfamiliar with him. He is followed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is trusted by 44% of Czechs, but also distrusted by 47%, according to the poll conducted on a sample of 1,725 people between 23 January and 3 February.
“Some foreign political leaders are quite unknown to the Czech public,” the pollsters noted. The proportion of “don’t know” responses is in the double digits for most politicians. It was highest for Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen (62%). The situation was similar for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
On the contrary, the vast majority of people know Zelenskiy, Putin, and Trump. For all three, the level of distrust outweighs public trust. For Zelenskiy, levels of trust and distrust are quite close, while mistrust significantly prevails in the case of Putin and Trump. Only 8% of Czechs trust the Russian president, while 87% do not. Trump is trusted by 12%, and distrusted by 83%.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has an even lower level of trust, with 7% of Czechs expressing trust in him. However, the level of distrust in his case (53%) is not as high as of Putin and Trump, while one-third of Czechs do not know the Chinese president.
CVVM pointed out that in some cases, trust varied significantly according to the electoral preferences of those surveyed. In addition to Zelenskiy, this also applies to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungarian PM Viktor Orban. Fico is trusted by 21% of Czechs and distrusted by 67%, while for Orban the ratio is 22% to 59%.
“Approximately two-thirds of Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) voters and two-fifths of ANO voters trust these two politicians,” said CVVM. Among voters of the Motorists, the third government party, more than a quarter of respondents trust Orban, and one-fifth trust Fico.
On the contrary, voters of the current opposition parties – the Spolu coalition of the Civic Democrats (ODS), TOP 09 and Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), the Mayors and Independents (STAN) and the Pirates express very low trust in these two politicians, in single digits.
A similar relation is also evident with Zelenskiy. Trust in him stands at 72% among STAN voters, 78% among Pirate voters, and 82% among Spolu supporters. “Among voters of other political entities, the confidence rating falls below one-quarter: 24% for the Motorists’ voters, 18% for ANO voters, and 9% for SPD voters,” the statisticians added.
