Power Complex: Why Czechs Look Askance at European Union

"We're defending Czechia - hard and without compromise."

The billboards of the Czech Republic's ruling ANO party for this week's election for the European Parliament show that something has gone badly wrong with the country's relationship with the EU.

Czechs have never been great EU enthusiasts but over the past few years opinion polls have consistently shown they are among the weakest supporters of the European Union.

Only 47 per cent say they would vote to remain members, according to a Eurobarometer survey commissioned by the European Commission in April, with only Britain showing less support at 45 per cent.

Turnout in the last European Parliamentary elections was also the second-lowest at 18 per cent. Consequently there have even been serious - if exaggerated - concerns that the country could be heading towards a "Czexit".

A troubled history of being dominated by big powers and betrayed by allies has created a victim mentality and an inferiority complex that makes it difficult for many Czechs to look beyond their own borders or believe in joint European projects.

Though the Czech Republic is a mid-sized state in European terms, some Czechs see their country as small and lacking in influence.

"I don't think this is healthy as it creates a lack of self confidence - 'the powers will always decide' - and a kind of cynicism," said Vit Benes, a lecturer in the EU at Prague's Metropolitan University.

He argues this sentiment was exploited in particular by Vaclav Klaus, the country's dominant political figure for its first two decades after the Velvet Revolution, who warned Czechs that they would dissolve in the EU like a sugar cube in a cup of coffee and that Brussels was issuing orders like the Kremlin used to.