{"id":18470,"date":"2024-11-23T09:22:28","date_gmt":"2024-11-23T09:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18470"},"modified":"2024-11-23T09:22:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T09:22:28","slug":"former-czech-prime-minister-babiss-ano-party-may-win-majority-in-parliament-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18470","title":{"rendered":"Former Czech Prime Minister Babi\u0161\u2019s ANO party may win majority in parliament \u2013 poll"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Czech opposition party ANO of former Prime Minister Andrej Babi\u0161 would win the parliamentary elections if they were held in the near future, according to a study by NMS Market Research, the \u010cTK agency reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The NMS Market Research model indicates that 35.3% of voters in the Czech Republic currently support ANO, a 2.4-point increase from October 2024. Taking into account the support of parties that do not overcome the electoral threshold, ANO could theoretically gain a majority in the lower house of the Czech parliament.<\/p>\n

Ruling liberal democratic parties leg behind<\/h3>\n

Next in the poll with a noticeable gap are the parties of the current pro-EU coalition, the Mayors and Independents (STAN) with 11.1% (down almost 1 point compared to October) and the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) with 10% (down 2.2 points).<\/p>\n

The far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) with 7%, the Communists with 5.8%, and the Pirates\u2019 Party (which recently left the government coalition) with 5.7% could also enter the Czech parliament. The TOP-09 party, currently part of the government, does not reach the threshold of 5%.<\/p>\n

The new populist far-right party \u201cAutomobilists for Self,\u201d which some polls predict will enter the parliament, gains just over 4% in the NMS Market Research study.<\/p>\n

Czech parliamentary elections in 2025<\/h4>\n

56.7% of eligible voters would participate in the November elections, the same as in previous months. Three years ago, 65.4% of voters came to the general election.<\/p>\n

1306 adult respondents from the Czech Republic participated in the survey, which took place from November 5 to 12. The margin of error is not specified, but according to \u010cTK, it is usually around one percentage point for smaller parties and up to 3.5 points for the strongest parties.<\/p>\n

The Czech Republic will hold parliamentary elections in the fall of 2025.<\/p>\n

ANO\u2019s success in the Senate and local elections<\/h4>\n

Last September, in the election of one-third of the Senate, the upper house of the Czech Republic\u2019s parliament, the government coalition of five parties retained a majority, but Andrej Babi\u0161\u2019s populist ANO party won<\/a> a total of eight of the 27 seats in the Senate that were up for re-election in the last election-two in the first round and six in the second.<\/p>\n

In the 2024 regional elections<\/a> in the Czech Republic, the opposition ANO party won by a wide margin in the vast majority of the 13 polling areas. The biggest surprise in these elections was ANO\u2019s victory in Central Bohemia, which was supposed to go to the ruling liberal democratic parties.<\/p>\n

The results are a wake-up call for Prime Minister Petr Fiala\u2019s government, which has a record low popularity rating heading into the 2025 parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n

Babi\u0161\u2019s communist past and settlement agreement<\/h3>\n

Andrej Babi\u0161 faced accusations of collaboration with the secret service of socialist Czechoslovakia. He repeatedly tried to refute these accusations in court. Finally, in October, he reached a settlement agreement<\/a> with the Slovak Interior Ministry, which stipulates that, despite the fact that Babi\u0161 was on the lists of the National Security Agency (StB, the equivalent of the Soviet KGB in socialist Czechoslovakia), this was allegedly done illegally and without his consent.<\/p>\n

This decision at least gives Andrej Babi\u0161 the right to bring to justice those who call him a \u201cStB agent.\u201d Babi\u0161\u2019s political career was accompanied by other scandals, including allegations that his company Agrofert illegally received European subventions.<\/p>\n

Anti-communist sentiments are still quite widespread in the Czech Republic. So it is not surprising that the information about the cooperation with the StB made Babi\u0161\u2019s candidacy unacceptable to many Czechs.<\/p>\n

Pro-Russian stance<\/h3>\n

ANO is a member of a European far-right coalition that includes Hungary\u2019s ruling party Fidesz and Austria\u2019s far-right Freedom Party, both known for Eurosceptic and pro-Russian stance. <\/p>\n

Because of its alliance with pro-Russian forces in the European Parliament (Orban, Le Pen, and Wilders), the ANO is\u00a0considered<\/a>\u00a0pro-Russian in the Czech Republic. Former Czech Prime Minister Babi\u0161 is known for his skepticism of military support for Ukraine. For example, he referred to the Czech initiative to purchase shells for Ukraine as a \u201cgovernment PR initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russian disinformation in Czechia<\/h3>\n

As reported, more than 60% of Czechs believe that Russia is actively using propaganda and disinformation to influence public opinion in the country, according to a research in Czechia<\/a> produced by Seznam News.<\/p>\n

The Czech citizens were asked to what extent they agree with the statement that \u201cRussia is actively using propaganda and disinformation to influence public opinion in the Czech Republic.\u201d More than 64% of respondents answered \u201cyes\u201d or \u201crather yes\u201d to this question.<\/p>\n

In our research on Russian propaganda impact in European media, we identified top-20 pro-Kremlin news outlets in the Czech Republic<\/a> that routinely disseminate disinformation and\/or pro-Russian narratives.<\/p>\n

These websites mainly focus on criticizing the EU, portraying Ukraine and its Western allies in a negative light, exchanging mutual quotations, and citing Russian state propaganda media platforms, including Sputnik, Russia Today, RIA, and the sanctioned Voice of Europe, formerly based in Prague. Some of the websites on the list republish fakes about events in Ukraine<\/a> crafted by Russian state propaganda media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Source: <\/em> politics.einnews.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Czech opposition party ANO of former Prime Minister Andrej Babi\u0161 would win the parliamentary elections if they were held in the near future, according to a study by NMS Market Research, the \u010cTK agency reported. The NMS Market Research model indicates that 35.3% of voters in the Czech Republic currently support ANO, a 2.4-point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18470\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}