Do the people of the Czech Republic consider the current regime better than the communist one? Back in 2019, state pollsters managed to fiddle with the numbers so that the closest margin of support came out for the current regime. This year, no more magic with numbers helped. Despite massive propaganda, the supporters of the current regime are just under half.
The comparison between the current and old regimes is not just one of many political opinions being measured. The first, basic, and essentially only moral justification for the current regime is that without it, the previous one could supposedly return. That is the only promise of Sorosian liberal democracy. Not prosperity, not justice, not decent conditions for ordinary life… and in recent years not even security. The regime is no longer able to provide anything. And it can no longer even pretend to. There is only one thing left – liberal democracy is a bulwark against the return of Marxist socialism. And now we have it in black and white that most people wouldn’t mind a return.
Will it lead to the collapse of the regime? Not a chance. Repression and intimidation of the population is enough to keep it stable. As Curtis Yarvin has well shown, ideologies are not for the governed, but for the hard core supporters of the system. Their beliefs matter. And it is not eroded.
It’s also worth noting that that opinion changes over time. Under Babis, people said this regime was better. Under the ODS governments, people say it is definitely not better than under the Bolsheviks.