About 61% of Czechs believe that presidential powers are now at an appropriate level, according to a poll conducted by the Centre for Public Opinion Research (CVVM) and released yesterday.
The public are most in agreement that the head of state should be able to bestow and award state honours, while the fewest respondents support the president’s power to stop court proceedings against criminal suspects.
Some 21% of Czechs would expand the powers of the president, while 15% of the public say the president has too much power. “Men, older age groups (aged 40 and over), respondents with primary education, and residents of the Usti, Liberec and Hradec Kralove regions are more likely to favour a narrowing of the president’s powers,” said CVVM. Voters of the current governing coalition are also more in favour of less presidential powers.
The poll was held from 23 January to 3 February with the participation of 1,725 people.
Some 73% of people agree with the president bestowing and awarding state honours, 70% with vetoing laws, and 56% with the granting of amnesties or commuting of sentences. Less than half of those surveyed believe the president should have the power to appoint judges. 36% of the public agree with the appointment and removal of rectors of public universities and 32% with the appointment of members of the board of the Czech National Bank. Only a quarter of people think that the president should be able to stop court proceedings independently.
More than 80% of respondents believe that the President should have the power to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies and call new elections only in exceptional cases defined by the Constitution of the Czech Republic. About 9% said the president should not have this power under any circumstances, and 6% said the president should have the right to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies and call new elections whenever they judge that the political situation requires it.
Almost half of the public thought that the president should appoint all constitutional judges with the approval of a senior elected official. Less than 20% of the public would support a variant where the president appoints only some of the constitutional judges, for example a third, and the rest are appointed by other top elected officials. Some 15% of respondents believe that the president should have the right to appoint all constitutional judges at their discretion, while 8% believe that the president should not appoint judges of the Constitutional Court.
