Former Czech PM who sought Romani votes as a failed candidate for president not ruling out collaborating with anti-Romani, fascist party
Former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (Association of Dissatisfied Citizens - ANO) will lead the ANO party in the next elections to the lower house and hopes to become prime minister once more. However, speaking on the CNN Prima News program "Partie", he said that if his running were to cause ANO problems, he would not do it.
Babiš said ANO therefore has three possible candidates to offer for prime minister. He did not rule out collaborating with the “Freedom and Direct Democracy” (Svoboda a přímá demokracie – SPD) movement, now in opposition, but said he considers the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) to be ANO’s main rival, even though it is on the road to self-destruction, in his opinion.
Czech Prime Minister and ODS head Petr Fiala posted to the X social media site that he will do all he can to prevent ANO and the SPD from forming a coalition government. Babiš defended his post as the head of ANO on Saturday and, like other leaders of movements in the lower house, stressed the importance of next year’s elections to that body.
Speaking at the ANO convention, Babiš said the party’s task is to get back into government and calm the country down after the current five-party coalition’s administration. Babiš said he wants to be the leading candidate for ANO during the elections to the lower house, but he does not yet know which region he will run in.
On Saturday, Babiš said the question of whether he wanted to be prime minister once more was a difficult one. In his subsequent interview for CNN Prima News, Babiš said he is still describing ANO as offering three candidates for prime minister, either himself, the party’s first vice-chair Karel Havlíček, or the head of ANO’s club in the lower house, Alena Schillerová.
“Ultimately I decided that I am the leader, I am the candidate for prime minister. Period,” he then said.
However, the ex-PM admits that his involvement could prevent different coalitions from forming. “If I were to be the cause of a problem for the ANO movement, then I certainly won’t be there,” he added.
Just as he said at the convention, in his interview Babiš said the ideal scenario would be if ANO could create a one-party government. “In the last elections here, a million ballots were never cast, and that’s why I’m saying: Give us your votes. It can happen once again that somebody here will win a lot of votes and still not get into the Chamber of Deputies,” he said.
According to the ex-PM, ANO will not go into a coalition with parties which steal, which abuse their offices for “a place at the trough”, and the representatives of which are just concerned with their own profit. Babiš said he considers his main rival to be the governing ODS.
When asked whether ANO would go into a coalition with the ODS, the ex-PM said “We would not”. In his view, the ODS is on the road to self-destruction because Fiala feels himself to be more like the head of the coalition Spolu (“Together” – the Christian Democrats, ODS and TOP 09) than the head of the ODS.
Babiš expressly did not rule out a coalition with the SPD. “The SPD is voted for by half a million people, they are our fellow citizens, we have a democracy, the elections are free, why should we exclude them somehow?” he said.
Jaroslav Miko, a Romani activist who will be running for the European Parliament, responded on Facebook to that development. “Every Czech Romani person should realize this fact during the elections, i.e, that by casting a vote for Babiš, one would also be supporting Tomio Okamura and his anti-Romani rhetoric and anti-Romani politics! I will personally do everything I can to make sure the Romani voters of the Czech Republic clearly comprehend this,” Miko said.
The activist also referenced the fact that during his presidential campaign, Babiš sought votes from the Romani community. For example, just before the second round of voting he attended the baptism of a Romani child in Sokolov where he danced and won support for his presidential candidacy not just from the family holding the party, but also from musician Milan Kroka.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said he believes Babiš has still not accepted his defeats during the most recent elections to the Chamber of Deputies and for the presidency. “His only program is being anti-Fiala. I take that in stride, but what bothers me is that ANO under his leadership is sliding more and more into personal attacks and extremist rhetoric,” he said.
According to Fiala, that trend actually endangers both the Czech Republic’s foreign policy direction and its security. “I will do everything I can to make sure the ANO-SPD coalition never controls this country,” the PM said.
