The president received his best scores on the way he speaks in public and in defending Czech interests abroad. Credit: Petr Pavel, via Facebook.
Prague, Dec 8 (CTK) – According to a STEM/MARK poll released yesterday, the Czech public evaluates President Petr Pavel as better than his predecessor Milos Zeman, in all five areas covered by the survey. Respondents were asked to grade Pavel’s performance from one to five, as in the Czech school system, and gave him an average grade of three.
The president received his best scores on the way he speaks in public and in defending Czech interests abroad, while his worst score was in resolving disputes on the Czech political scene.
Pavel received an average grade of 2.5 for his public speaking style and 2.8 for representing and defending Czech interests abroad. He got 3 on average for his use of presidential powers and 3.2 for his concern about the problems of citizens.
The respondents rated Pavel’s handling of disputes on the domestic political scene the worst, between 3 and 4. However, STEM/MARK analysts pointed out that it is not clear what disputes respondents actually had in mind, as the survey did not ask them about this.
“The good news for the current president may be that he is assessed positively, with 1 or 2, by almost a fifth of those who voted for Andrej Babis in the last presidential election,” said Jan Burianec, the author of the research. “In addition, he has a better rating in all five categories than the previous president, Milos Zeman, who in the second half of his second term had an average rating of four from the Czech public. On the other hand, Zeman did not have a bad starting position at the beginning of his first term in office either.”
Pavel defeated former PM and current opposition ANO leader Babis in the runoff presidential vote in January.
Pavel enjoys higher support especially among people under 30, university graduates, people from larger towns, and right-wing voters. On the other hand, he received a lower rating from respondents over 60, voters of the opposition Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and ANO, and low-income groups.
The poll was conducted online on a sample of 1,010 people over 18.
