The party of Former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš—known for its cordial relationship with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz as well as its opposition to mass migration and EU federalism—is set to win big in next month’s parliamentary Senate and municipal elections, new polling data has revealed.
The poll, published days ago by Median, indicates one-third of the Czech electorate plans on voting for Babiš’s ANO Movement in the upcoming elections set to be held on September 23rd, a tally that could see the anti-establishment, centrist-populist party triple the number of seats it presently holds in the country’s upper legislative house, and double the number of seats it occupies in municipal councils, Echo24 reports.
The Civic Democratic Party (ODS), a liberal-conservative party that occupies the largest number of seats in the lower house and whose leader is the sitting prime minister, is projected to come in at a distant second place, at 15.5%, followed by the national Right party Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), with 12.5%.
The latest polling data appears to be indicative of rising discontent over the ruling center-Right coalition’s economic and foreign policy positions, and comes as Czechs—like the vast majority of Europeans—struggle to cope with rampant inflation and massive cost of living hikes as they look ahead to a looming energy crisis this winter.
“Due to the bad economic policy of the government, which cannot or does not want to solve fundamental and existential problems, such as inflation and the rise in the prices of basic commodities, the opposition may gain ground. Now, it will be a matter of what it will be like,” Lukáš Valeš, a political scientist at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, told the Czech business newspaper E15.
Valeš added that popular support for Babiš’s ANO movement would likely increase “significantly” in September’s municipal and Senate elections due to the center-Right coalition’s “incompetence.”
Across the continent, as working people continue to bear the brunt of the burden of the European Union’s ill-thought-out, total economic war against Russia, ruling parties—and their leaders—who’ve stood behind the bloc’s sanctions and military aid packages have witnessed their popular support drop precipitously, with some governments collapsing entirely, as was seen weeks ago in Italy.
Earlier this summer, French President Emmanuel Macron lost his grip on the National Assembly, the country’s lower house, partly due to economic sanctions his government imposed against Russia—sanctions which have drastically lowered the standard of living of working and middle-class French people.
In Germany, support for the left-liberal Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD), the largest partner in the ‘stop light’ coalition, has seen its support drop off a cliff in the wake of its response to the onset of the Russo-Ukraine war, which to many, has been perceived as diametrically opposed to German interests. The same phenomenon has also been observed in Norway, Slovakia, and to a lesser extent in Poland.
In sharp contrast stands Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, which—likely as a result of its policies geared toward Hungarian national interests, not the interests of the U.S., Ukraine, or Russia—has witnessed its exceptionally high support levels remain constant high amid the war.
The fact that Babiš’s ANO movement, along with the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), collectively have the support of close to 43% of the population, suggests that nearly half of the population supports an Orbán-esque position on the Russo-Ukraine war for Czechia.
Support for Orbán’s national conservative vision remains quite strong across the European continent. So much so, that a cadre of left-liberal organizations funded in part by the U.S. government has made it their priority to prevent Orbán’s national conservatism from inspiring hearts and minds in the Western Balkans, as The European Conservative’s Sven Larson revealed in his piece: The Balkan War on Conservativism.
