The Czechs have had the best relation to the neighbouring Slovakia and Austria out of all foreign countries in the long term, as these countries are assessed positively by 87 and 78 percent of people, respectively, according to the STEM agency's fresh public opinion poll.
On the contrary, people's favour of Western big powers such as the USA, Germany, France and Britain has declined, but still these countries are assessed more positively than Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and China, which emerged with the worst ratings of all.
The USA sees its preferences among Czech people decline most of all surveyed countries as against those in 2017. This may be connected with Donald Trump's arrival and steps in the post of U.S. president, the pollsters said.
"Similarly, the decline in France's popularity can be explained by the country's turbulent period including the steps of President [Emmanuel] Macron," STEM wrote, linking the declining popularity of Britain to Brexit.
After Slovakia and Austria, Czechs gave majority positive assessments to Croatia, the Netherlands, Italy, Canada and the Scandinavian countries. Belgium, Hungary, France, Britain and Slovenia ended with moderate ratings of about 60 percent, followed by Japan, Poland and Germany with 50 percent.
The countries popular with less than a half of Czechs are the USA, Serbia, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and China. Compared with the two-year-old poll, China has replaced Turkey in the bottom place, perceived negatively by 41 percent of Czechs.
STEM conducted the poll on 1,004 people on June 14-30.
