Forty-three percent of Czechs believe that the current situation in the country is better than before the 1989 fall of the communist regime, according to a poll released by the CVVM agency to CTK today. This figure is 6% lower than in 2019, but is still the third highest figure in the past 33 years.
The proportion of those who consider the situation in the country before 1989 to be better increased by 4 percentage points to 16%, and of those who assess the current and the pre-1989 situation as comparable increased by 5 percentage points to 37%.
According to the pollsters, the better assessments of the situation, as recorded in the 2019 and 2009 surveys, could be related to the greater media interest in the topic of the November 1989 revolution and the pre-1989 era on the occasion of those anniversary celebrations.
As in 2019, more than half of Czech citizens now perceive the pre-1989 political system itself negatively, while the assessment of the current one has declined below the level of 2014, when 22% considered it good. Now one-fifth of people assessed it as good, 14 percentage points less than in 2019.
Czechs also rate the pre-1989 economic system more negatively than positively, with 27% assessing it as good and 37% as bad. People are even more critical of the current economic system, with 46% saying it is bad and 25% saying it is good. Five years ago, the ratings were better, with 45% assessing the current economic system positively and 20% negatively.
The respondents do perceive some clear improvement in the conditions in the Czech Republic compared to the pre-1989 period, mainly in the opportunities to study, work and travel abroad, in access to education, in free access to information, and free participation in non-public life. On the contrary, they believe that social security, safety and crime have deteriorated. However, even in these areas, the once very distant proportions of favourable and unfavourable ratings have moved much closer together, said CVVM.
CVVM also surveyed people’s views on who were the winners and losers of the changes brought about by November 1989, or who gained and lost out from the changes. 85% of those polled said businessmen gained from the change of the political system, followed by dissidents and opponents of the communist regime, intellectuals and experts, who were identified as winners by around 70% of the respondents. More than half of them also named the Roma minority and religious people. In contrast, people said workers and especially communist officials lost out.
CVVM conducted the poll on 1,000 people between 10 June and the end of August.
