Mailbox
This week's topics: Our new voice - Mirna Solic. Czech towns which predominantly voted No in EU referendum. Referendum results divided into categories. Why pensioners supported EU membership. The referendum results in real numbers. Listeners quoted: Peter Genim, Adolfo Maiorana, Patricia Benti, Margret Hillson, Kenneth Brown.
We got quite a few questions on the referendum so we'll have to devote today's Mailbox to it. But first, Peter Genim wrote us from Manchester, in the UK, asking:
"I have noticed a new name on your website. Is Mirna Solic replacing Dean Vuletic?"
No, Mirna has not come as a replacement for Dean. She is here as part of the same project as Martin Hrobsky, Nicole Klement, or Pavla Navratilova were under.
But we're certainly glad Mirna has joined our team, even if it's just for a couple of months.
Adolfo Maiorana sent us an e-mail from Italy:
"I really enjoyed your programme on the referendum today. I have noticed on the internet that most Czech towns have voted yes to the EU. Are there any towns or villages that mainly voted against EU membership?"
Yes, there were. But the most negative votes came from a village called Zupanovice, close to the town of Jindrichuv Hradec, which are just a few kilometres away from the Czech-Austrian border. They did not join celebrations after the referendum. Although only twenty out of the forty eligible voters came to the polls, fifteen of them said "No" to the EU.
The inhabitants of the village simply don't believe that the EU will bring a better future. They often hear from their Austrian neighbours that they regret having decided to join the EU. The mayor of Zupanice has explained that people say they will neither be able to work in Austria nor afford to buy anything across the borders while Austrians will. They therefore fear that their Austrian neighbours will come and buy all the property as soon as the Czech Republic accedes to the union.
Patricia Benti writes from Frankfurt, Germany and has the following question:
"I have been listening to Radio Prague and visiting its website for some six months now. I was especially interested in your referendum. On one of our TV stations here in Germany they showed what I believe was a Czech TV news programme of the referendum results. A woman was pointing at several virtual charts which showed the percentages of yes and no votes in different categories. Our German station didn't explain it to us. Could you?"
Well, you were right at guessing that the charts divided the results into different groups. The first charts they showed informed us about what parties were most supportive of the EU. 92% of those from the Freedom Union who voted said yes. The opposition right-of-centre Civic Democrats followed with 86%, after which came the Christian Democrats with 84%, then the Social Democrats with 82%, and the Communists with 37%.
What is interesting is that the percentages in the different categories are all quite similar. For example, 78% of those who went to the polls in towns voted yes compared to 75% of those in the villages. 78% of women said yes to EU membership and a percentage less of the men voted for the EU.
And one last statistic - between 75-80% of all age categories were positive, the highest number of yes votes being in the 60 years and above age group.
That actually leads us to the next question, which is from Margret Hillson from Maryland, in the United States:
"How is it possible that so many pensioners voted in favour of your country's membership of the European Union? I though that was your politicians' worst fear? Many were worried about the elderly not wanting to begin a new era, being fed up of the hold the Soviet Union had over Czechoslovakia."
It is true that it came as a surprise to see that 79% of Czechs above sixty years, who came to vote, voted yes. The main reason they stated was that they came to the polls to ensure their grandchildren have a better future. It is also true that the older generation was expected to be more hesitant about supporting EU membership because they have already been in a union - the Soviet Union - and had bad experiences. But many of those asked why they chose to say yes in the referendum said they wanted to make sure that totalitarianism would be a part of history and not of the future.
Kenneth Brown listens to us on short-wave somewhere in New Zealand and says he hardly gets a chance to use a computer but wrote us an e-mail when he visited a friend with an internet connection. He writes:
"In your news and reports you have said that 77.3% of those who voted in the referendum voted yes, 22.7% said no and 55.2% of eligible voters went to the polls. What does that make in real numbers?"
Well, Mr Brown. It means that 3,446,758 Czechs supported EU membership and 1,010,448 Czechs opposed it. 103,193 votes were invalid.
And that is where we'll end today's Mailbox. Please keep on sending in your questions and comments - your feedback will be well appreciated!
You can write to us by regular post - the address is Vinohradska 12, 120 99 Prague 2.
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