Main Czech opposition party in coalition with fascists in a fourth region, racist campaigns no obstacle, Social Democrats assisting the coalition in two regions
Representatives of the Association of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) movement, the coalition called VOICE of self-administration (HLAS samospráv) and a coalition of the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" (SPD), the Libertarians (Svobodní), the PRO and the Tricolor movements have signed a coalition agreement for the Hradec Králové Region. This is the fourth such coalition combining ANO with a xenophobic coalition led by the SPD of Tomio Okamura. In two regions they will be assisted with governing by Social Democrats (SOCDEM), now led by Jana Maláčová. The daily Deník N reports that the ANO movement, led by Andrej Babiš, has thereby facilitated the influence of the heretofore isolated SPD of Tomio Okamura in four regions total.
The governor of the Hradec Králové Region will be Petr Koleta (ANO), who is also the Mayor of Hronov and a Regional Assembly member. The coalition has a majority of 24 out of the 45 seats in the Regional Assembly. On the nine-member Regional Council ANO gets seven seats, VOICE of self-administration holds one, and the coalition of the Libertarians, PRO, SPD and Tricolor also has one. The agreement was signed by Petr Koleta, chair of the regional SOCDEM organization, by the Mayor of Náchod, Jan Birke, and by Miroslav Havrda (Libertarians).
“We will continue investing into health care, social services and transportation. We are working on the Regional Council’s program declaration, which we plan to introduce in three months,” Koleta said.
The opposition will now include the unseated Governor Martin Červíček (Civic Democratic Party – ODS) and his coalition called Strong Leaders for the Region (Silní lídři pro kraj, which is the Christian Democrats or KDU-ČSL, the East Bohemians or Východočeši, and ODS), as well as a four-party coalition of the HDK, LES, Mayors and Independents (STAN) and TOP 09 parties, and lastly, the Enough! (Stačilo!) group of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) and the Czech National Socialist Party (Česká strana národně sociální). ANO won 18 seats, Strong Leaders won 13, the four-party coalition won 6, VOICE of self-administration secured three, the coalition of the Libertarians, PRO, SPD and Tricolor has three, and Enough! won two seats. Turnout was 34.22 %.
ANO had already agreed to collaborate with the xenophobic group of PRO, SPD and Tricolor in the Moravian-Silesian, Olomouc and Vysočina Regions. ANO has invited the SPD into regional government despite the openly racist campaign waged by PRO, SPD and Tricolor against migrants and Romani people.
