HN: You are Europe - Czechs are not very interested in the EU, yet they are the most critical of it

Czechs are by far the most critical of all Central European countries. While in Hungary only 9 percent of people are in favor of leaving the EU, 34 percent is in Czech Republic.

Last week, the media presented results of the survey, in which our institute was involved. The EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy was responsible for the Czech part of the survey, which also took place in Hungary, Austria, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The survey showed that in the Czech Republic 54% of Czechs favors to stay in the EU. In Hungary, where the Prime Minister is Vladimir Orbán, who has always been a vocal critic of Brussels, 84% of citizens are for staying in the EU.

Do the Czechs think of the benefits of EU membership as a natural thing, or have the Hungarians got fed up with the eternal blaming of the EU for the country's problems? Christian Kvorning Lassen commented the survey for Hospodářské noviny.

"The Czechs have long been under the pressure of public Euroscepticism since President Václav Klaus's first mandate. (...) A critical view of the EU has since spread widely in the Czech Republic and gained awareness."

At the same time, the current Hungarian government leader, Viktor Orbán, is also very critical towards the EU. "But up to the point that people got fed up with this cliché, that Brussels is responsible for everything bad." said Vladimir Bartovic director of EUROPEUM institute.

You can find the whole article in printed version of Hospodářské noviny from February 22 on page 5, or online in the archive of iHned.cz.

Christian Kvorning Lassen
Deputy Director & Head of Research

Expertise: Migration/European migration crisis, EU foreign policy, Scandinavian politics, populism, EU enlargement policy

Vladimír Bartovic
President

Expertise: EU institutional issues, Economic and Monetary Union, € and European budget, Brexit, EU foreign policy, EU enlargement with the focus on Western Balkans, Slovak foreign and domestic policy and economic issues