The referendum on the government was not held, but TOGETHER in Prague has a weak result
Markéta Pekarová Adamová (TOP 09), Petr Fiala (ODS), Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL) | PHOTO: Vojtěch Laštůvka / FORUM 24
In recent weeks, the populists Babiš and Okamura described the situation in Czech society as the state before the uprising. An angry public was supposed to rise up against the government, which is said to be nicer to Ukrainian refugees than its own citizens. The impression that the Czechia is on the boil is caused by the fact that the price of energy is rising, and a number of media spread the impression.
It was complete nonsense. The Bastila did not fall and the shot from the Aurora did not go off. The municipal and senate elections did not bring any clear result that would indicate any kind of popular uprising. In many places, the governing parties succeeded, especially in Prague and Brno. However, the YES movement of the indicted billionaire and collaborator of the State Security was also successful in a number of cities. And support for Putin’s SPD increased.
The picture of the Czech political scene at the time of the threatening war and economic turbulence does not change in any revolutionary way from the previous state. The biggest cities vote for western democratic parties, while other countries like various forms of firm-handed government. ANO won in most of the statutory cities and the TOGETHER coalition therefore has no great reason to celebrate.
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The victory of the democratic right in Prague will probably enable the introduction of a coalition according to the government format, but the Prague organizations ODS and TOP 09 should rather be ashamed of where they have reached in the capital. The expected result of 30 percent and more for the TOGETHER coalition did not come. Prague was once a bastion of multi-footprint transformational optimism, and that is gone. Today, even here, the classical parties are in the minority. It is quite a clear conclusion of the bad leadership of the Prague ODS, which acts like a dig from the nineties of the last century.
The real tragedy of the Czech political scene is the fact that there is no ordinary democratic government coalition fighting an ordinary democratic opposition. Yes, Andrej Babiše has taken over the role of former social democrats, but at the same time it is a party that opposes the remnants of the communist past and the civilized and modern world. It’s a party that destroys polistopada democracy, but it’s not allowed to be said in the Czech media, so together we pretend that ANO is something normal. It is significant that the leader of the Prague SPOL, Bohuslav Svoboda, rejected the coalition with ANO, and the coalition led by him even paid for advertisements in Andrej Babiš’s newspaper in complete cynicism, which he publishes in direct violation of the law on conflict of interests. In addition, his main daily Mf DNES has repeatedly and ostentatiously sided with the criminal regime in Russia. But the TOGETHER coalition didn’t mind and sent Babiš money.
In the Czech Republic, the clear threat to democracy continues. The opposition is not opposition to the government, but also opposition to democracy as such. The rise of Tomio Okamura’s pro-Moscow and anti-Western party SPD, together with the strengthening of the position of Andrej Babiš’s ANO movement, is a clear signal. Although there was no referendum on the government, the democratic parties should finally come to their senses and see that they are standing on the edge of the abyss. Now, no one has thrown them into it yet, the uprising has not yet taken place. But that’s not success. It could easily happen next time. And let’s be sure that the accession of Babiš and Okamura to government power would mean a de facto regime change and the liquidation of the multi-track road to democracy.