Just curious as to what the typical Czech thinks about Czech membership in NATO and now the radar sites from the US going into Czech.
This is the reaction I've most received. I ask because I'm a political junky who loves to argue politics. I'm currently arguing with a few Americans that think no one in Czech wants the radar sites, don't want to be part of NATO, and think the US is pissing off Russia by expanding into "Russia's territory."
I'm still for radar, I believe our NATO memebership is necessity. And main reason I have for it is Russia.
It's nonsense to ask for the opinion of typical Czech, since the Czech society is extremely polarized in political issues. It is true that majority of Czechs are against it, but typically it is not strong opposition. It's vehemently opposed by commies (about 15 %) and some strange people who are generally considered to be idiots (greenies of all sorts, pacifists and so on, all together about 5 %). It's also opposed by socialists (about 35 %), but it seems they are just picking up the cheap points by surfing the wave of public opinion. It's generally supported by the right-wingers. In the chamber of deputies, it is supported by the government coalition which has about 100 of 200 deputies. Some greenies (max 6) and lefties in the Christan Democratic party (about 3) of the government coalition are dissenting, but they could be eventuelly compensated by some dissenting Social Democrats. Thus the situation is not clear. The supporters are in majority in the Senat. I personally am in favor of the radar site, but I'm not sure it is advantageous to invest a lot of political capital into this issue, since the support in the parliament seems to be too weak. On the other hand, I dislike both Paroubek (leader of the Socialists) and Topolánek (PM and the leader of the Civic Democrats). Therefore I like what's happening right now. It must end with disgrace for one of them, maybe for both. The NATO membership is not controversial. Overwhelming majority supports it. The controversial issue here is which faction in NATO we have to support. The Socialists support France and Germany, while the right-wingers support the USA and Britain.
