Poll: Slovaks prefer a strong welfare state

Almost 80 percent of all Slovaks believe that people lived a more secure life and helped each other more during the era of socialism; being the period before 1989, according to a poll carried out by the Focus agency for the M.R. Štefánik Conservative Institute. Those polled mostly preferred a strong welfare state and tended not to trust market solutions. As many as 87 percent of people agreed with the opinion that health is not a commodity, therefore the state must guarantee, finance and provide cost-free health care for all. The survey, which was carried out in April this year, found out that positive opinions regarding the state playing a strong role predominate with socio-economic issues and less so with issues of freedom and democracy. "It turned out that people are more prone to trusting the state over personal responsibility and freedom, which carries higher risks," said Peter Gonda, the director of the institute.