A Difficult Position for Jerzy Buzek's Government
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CBOS SEPTEMBER '99 ISSN 1233 - 7250 A DIFFICULT POSITION FOR JERZY BUZEK'S IN THIS ISSUE: GOVERNMENT In September evaluations of HOW WOULD YOU EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE Jerzy Buzek's government were the OF JERZY BUZEK'S GOVERNMENT SINCE ITS COMING Ø A DIFFICULT lowest in its history. Opinions on the INTO POWER? (%) POSITION FOR government have been deteriorating 70 JERZY BUZEK'S steadily since June, and during the last GOVERNMENT two months the cabinet has lost 60 almost one quarter of its supporters. 50 The respondents' current evaluations of the government, formed by the 40 Ø ATTITUDES AWS (the Solidarity Election Action) 30 TOWARDS ETHNIC and UW (the Freedom Union) MINORITIES coalition, are not only the lowest in 20 the two years of its history, but also 10 exceptionally low as compared with 0 opinions on the four previous VII '98 VIII IX X XI XII I '99 II III(1) III(2) IV V VI VII VIII IX governments. It should be noted, Well Badly Difficult to say Ø OPINIONS ON however, that in September the THE WORK OF increase of negative opinions is not accompanied by a corresponding decrease of positive THE POLICE ones. It may mean that the main reason for the decrease of the government's rating recorded in the last month is the bad publicity recently associated with Jerzy Buzek's government. The protests against the government's policy reported in the media (e.g. ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE FACT THAT JERZY BUZEK IS THE HEAD OF THE GOVERNMENT? farmers' demonstrations) and internal Ø DO WE SUFFER problems (such as the resignation of BECAUSE OF (%) 60 Deputy Prime Minister and the NOISE? Minister of Internal Affairs Janusz 50 Tomaszewski), together with growing criticism on the part of the opposition, 40 may encourage people who have had 30 no opinion on the government so far to express negative opinions. PUBLIC OPINION 20 Over two fifths of respondents RESEARCH CENTER (43%, 4% more than in August) - CBOS - 10 consider themselves opponents of Jerzy Buzek's government. This is 0 4a ¯urawia VII '98 VIII IX X XI XII I '99 II III(1) IV V VI VII VIII IX the highest percentage of opponents 00-503 Warszawa Yes No Difficult to say of a government ever recorded (i.e. POLAND since the beginning of 1993, when we started measuring it). Supporters of the government are now clearly a minority - only one quarter of our respondents declare their support for the present government (25%, a decrease Ph: (48 22) 629 35 69 by 1%). (48 22) 628 37 04 At the moment, almost two out of every three respondents (64%) evaluate the (48 22) 693 58 94 government's performance negatively, while only one in four (25%) expresses a positive opinion. None of the previous cabinets (our data allows us to track changes in the opinions on Fax:(48 22) 629 40 89 the policies of the last five governments) obtained so many bad evaluations and so few good ones. Previously Waldemar Pawlak's government was evaluated the lowest (in February E-mail: [email protected] 1995). Negative opinions outnumbered positive ones by 23% then, while now this difference is as big as 39%. Nor did the crisis last so long in the case of any previous government. http://www.cbos.pl Almost half of the respondents (55%, an increase of 2%) are not satisfied that Jerzy Buzek is the Prime Minister, compared to only slightly more than one quarter who accept him © COPYRIGHT BY CBOS 1999 (28%, an increase of 1%). These are the worst evaluations that any Prime Minister has obtained throughout the whole decade. No Prime Minister since 1989 has been evaluated so ALL SOURCES MUST BE CREDITED badly, and none of them was disliked by the majority of respondents. Waldemar Pawlak, the WHEN ANY PART OF THIS PUBLICATION IS REPRODUCED least liked Prime Minister so far, during the worst period during his term was approved by 34% of respondents (at the same time 48% declared their disapproval). 2 09.99 Pessimism still prevails in opinions on the show that we tend to overestimate rather than economic prospects of our country. Over two thirds of underestimate the presence of ethnic minorities in Poland. respondents (67%, an increase of 3%) believe that the The sizes of the Jewish and Gypsy minorities are policy of the government does not give any cause for overestimated the most. A large part of respondents hope that the economic situation will improve. Less than consider them as the biggest minority groups in Poland. one quarter (23%) express the opposite opinion. Among On the other hand, the ethnic minorities which are really the different areas of the government's activity, agrarian the biggest (German, Ukrainian and Belorrussian) are policy is evaluated the lowest - almost three quarters of assessed correctly. respondents consider it unsatisfactory. The social policy As far as different ethnic minorities are concerned, of the state, health care and the way the government takes we like the Czech and Slovaks the most. Lithuanians, care of its citizens' safety are also evaluated negatively. Germans, Belorussians and Russians are less liked. The As compared with the situation at the beginning of the most disliked are those minorities whose size is year, evaluations of government policy decreased the overestimated the most, i.e. Gypsies and Jews. Negative most with regard to the proper management of public feelings also prevail in the case of Ukrainians, although to money, economic policy and state administration. a lesser extent. More information on this subject can be found in the CBOS report HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR FEELINGS TOWARDS "The attitude to the government in September.", September 1999. POLISH CITIZENS OF THE FOLLOWING ORIGIN: '94 38% 45% 9% Czech ATTITUDES TOWARDS ETHNIC '99 43% 47% 6% MINORITIES '94 42% 43% 7% Slovak Polish society is ethnically homogeneous. It is '99 42% 48% 5% estimated that around one million Polish citizens belong to ethnic minorities, which constitutes a very small '94 32% 42% 18% percentage of the population (3-4%). The largest Lithuanian '99 34% 50% 11% minorities are the Germans (around 700,000), Ukrainians (around 250-300,000) and Belorussians (around '94 28% 36% 30% 250,000). Slovaks, Lithuanians, Roma (Gypsies) and German Jews are less numerous. Polish citizens of Russian, '99 32% 41% 24% Czech and Greek nationality form even smaller groups. Therefore, the opinions of most residents of Poland on '94 26% 47% 18% Belorussian ethnic minorities are probably shaped by the media and '99 28% 53% 14% common stereotypes, rather than by personal contact with representatives of these communities. '94 23% 41% 30% Russian '99 24% 45% 26% WHAT NATIONALITYARE THE POLISH CITIZENS WHOSE '94 16% 35% 42% NATIONALITY IS OTHER THAN POLISH? PLEASE CHOOSE Ukrainian THE THREE LARGEST ETHNIC MINORITIES '99 19% 44% 33% (%) German 72 '94 18% 38% 37% Jewish 56 Jewish '99 16% 45% 35% Gypsy 42 Ukrainian 41 '94 11% 30% 54% Gypsy Belorussian 28 '99 16% 42% 39% Russian 21 like indifference dislike Lithuanian 21 "Difficult to say" answers were disregarded. Slovak 4 Respondents who believe that a particular ethnic Czech 3 minority is large tend to dislike this minority. Persons who Difficult to say 6 overestimate the size of ethnic minorities in Poland at the same time present a much less positive attitude towards We asked our respondents to estimate the number these minorities. of citizens of other than Polish nationality who currently As compared with five years ago, the Poles' feelings live in our country. In the opinion of the respondents, they towards Gypsies changed the most. The percentage of those constitute a slightly bigger part of our society than is who declare their positive attitude towards them has grown actually the case. The largest group of respondents (35%) a little (by 5%), while the percentage of negative opinions estimate the percentage of ethnic minorities correctly (3 to has decreased significantly (by 15%). We like the Czechs 5% of the total population). However, other indications more now, too. Our negative feelings towards PUBLIC OPINION RESEARCH CENTER - CBOS - 09.99 3 Lithuanians, Germans, Ukrainians, Russians and the inadequate training of policemen, and their passive Belorussians have also decreased a little. On the other attitude towards offenders (14%). In connection with the hand, our attitude to Slovaks has not changed. We are insufficient (in the respondents' opinion) number of more indifferent to Jews now than five years ago. policemen respondents mentioned their low salaries and the permanent deficit of funds allocated to financing police More information on this subject can be found in the CBOS report "The operations (14%). They also said that policemen are not attitude to ethnic minorities", September 1999. adequately protected from threats made by the criminal world, which leads to fears connected with their own safety OPINIONS ON THE WORK and the safety of their families. OF THE POLICE HOW DO YOU EVALUATE THE WORK OF THE POLISH POLICE? According to the results of opinion polls, the view Well of Polish society on the law and obeying the law seem relatively strict. However, faith in the effectiveness of the firm actions of the police and stricter laws is easy to 43% understand, taking into account a significant increase of crime in the last ten years, accompanied by the decreasing effectiveness of the police and a tendency to punish 9% offenders less severely. In an earlier survey, respondents Difficult mentioned the following obstacles to fighting crime most 48% to say frequently: too gentle laws; too much tolerance towards offenders; and too humane conditions in prisons. In the Badly respondents' opinions, the crime rate could be decreased if more severe sentences were passed and conditions in prisons were harder.