A recent proposal by the Czech government that shifts more attention to socio-economic rights in the country’s foreign policy has whipped up a lot of emotions. Most foreign policy pundits dismissed it as too ideological and naïve. The controversy is fueled by essential disagreements on which ‘human rights’ matter, what ‘the West’ stands for, and more importantly, what really shaped the Czech post-89 past.

In its June 2014 survey, the Public Opinion Research Centre of the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Centrum pro výzkum veřejného mínění, Sociologický ústav AV ČR, CVVM) asked Czech respondents about social acceptance of homosexuality. It conducted a public opinion poll among 1049 Czechs over 15 on whether gay people should have the right to enter into a registered partnership or marriage or adopt children.

Despite all predictions, the Czech Communists have maintained their position as one of the top parties in the country since the Velvet Revolution. According to a unique survey done by the author, this is because people are voting for them for rational reasons that are unlikely to change any time soon.