Slovaks are in favour of the separation of church and state. This is according to the results of an online survey conducted by the NMS Market Research Slovakia agency, with 61 percent of Slovaks surveyed agreeing with this option. Less than a fifth of the population considers the current model of financing churches and religious communities from the state budget to be the most appropriate.
The separation of the church and the state is mainly supported by men (66 per cent), older people aged 65+ (71 per cent), people with secondary (64 per cent) and higher education (71 per cent), and people living in Bratislava (70 per cent). The opposite opinion was expressed by 26 per cent of respondents who disagree with the separation of church and state, 13 per cent do not know or do not want to comment on this topic.
Respondents in the survey had the opportunity to express their opinion on which model of financing churches and religious communities would be the most appropriate in their opinion. "The current model, based on direct payments from the state budget based on the number of members who sign up to the church in the census, would be retained by 19 per cent of people," the survey results show.
The model of classifying churches and religious communities as non-profit organisations, to which two percent of income tax can be paid annually, would be supported by 20 percent of people. The model of funding by a special church tax would be preferred by 18 percent of the population.
Slovaks see the negative influence of the church on public life primarily as a result of its attitudes in the area of human rights. Most people perceive the negative influence of the church in the direction of the society-wide debate on the rights of sexual minorities (41 per cent). A comparable proportion of the population speaks of the church's negative influence in the reproductive rights debate (39 percent). A third of the population, in turn, thinks that the church negatively influences the discussion of women's rights.
The online survey was conducted between 17 and 22 January on a sample of 1,000 respondents.
