Survey: Czechs' Attitude towards Slovakia Worsens, Drops from 1st Place to 10th

Prague, 24 May (TASR-correspondent) - The attitude of Czechs towards Slovakia has significantly worsened, according to a STEM survey carried out between 8-17 April 2025 on a sample of 1,031 respondents aged 18 years and older. While in the past the Czechs regularly rated their relation to Slovakia the best, in the latest survey Slovakia dropped to tenth place. The rating of the Slovak head of state has also worsened, by as much as 30 percentage points. However, STEM pointed out that the Czechs' attitude towards Slovaks hasn't changed much and the survey results are probably related to the current political developments in Slovakia. In the STEM survey on Czechs' attitudes towards selected countries and foreign figures, which STEM has been conducting since the 1990s, respondents rate their attitudes by school grades. Slovakia was given top marks by 61 percent of people, down by 10 percentage points from last year. Slovak President Peter Pellegrini is positively evaluated by 38 percent of Czechs, while his predecessor in office Zuzana Caputova was positively assessed by 68 percent of Czechs in the last year of her tenure. According to STEM, even people for whom Pellegrini was not well known last year have already made up their minds about him and the share of people who evaluate him unfavourably has increased by 10 percentage points compared to 2024. However, according to STEM, the attitude of Czechs towards Slovaks hasn't changed much. "The significant decline in positive evaluation, following the downward trend of the previous two years, is first of all related to the current political situation in the country, where relations with the Czech Republic have cooled after the fourth government of [Robert] Fico [Smer-SD) took office in the autumn of 2023. In June 2024, the Czech Republic's long-time favourite President Zuzana Caputova was replaced by Peter Pellegrini, who is not enjoying greater popularity in the Czech Republic even after a year in office," said STEM analyst Silvia Petty. Slovakia, which until now regularly ranked first in this survey, was replaced this year by Switzerland. The Czechs also have a better relationship to Canada, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark than with Slovakia. The top-ranked foreign personality was Pope Francis (the survey was conducted just before his death), followed by outgoing Polish President Andrzej Duda. am/ko