New poll suggests president’s approval ratings low

A new poll conducted by the Focus agency for the Czech daily Mladá fronta Dnes, published Monday, suggests that only 15 percent of Czechs view Miloš Zeman’s role as president positively. In the survey, 38 percent viewed his first nine months negatively while 42 percent took a neutral stance, seeing his presidency so far as neither positive nor negative. The two previous heads-of-state, the late Václav Havel and Mr Zeman’s predecessor, Václav Klaus, both had higher approval ratings at this stage: Mr Havel had 80 percent and Mr Klaus, 75. Critics in the poll charged that Mr Zeman’s abrasive manner as well as his relationship with alcohol had cast the presidency in a bad light.