Jan Houška: Andrej Babiš is cozying up to the ultra-right. What does that mean for Roma?
The chair of the Association of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO), Andrej Babiš, attended a summit of the ultra-right faction in the European Parliament called "Patriots for Europe". That means he attended a meeting of the ultra-right which is historically linked to Fascism and Nazism. He is meeting with politicians who would not hesitate, for instance, to deport Roma from their countries.
The politics of the ultra-right are dangerous, they are intended just for a select part of society which defines itself as the deserving. The ultra-right is capable of promising anything at all to that group in particular, for instance, even a welfare state that takes care of everything. Of course, if you do not have the “right” skin color, you’re out of luck in such a system. Whether you are or are not a citizen is not determined by your identity card, but by your place of birth and skin color.
The ultra-right parties present very simplified solutions to their voters which cannot work in complex situations. The voters are frequently unaware of this, though. They are impressed by the slogans about order and stability. What’s more, voters are disgusted – and very often justifiably so – by the politics of the standard political parties, and therefore they have a tendency to deviate toward voting for entities which essentially exploit the anger and frustration of the citizenry.
The question remains: Is the ANO movement actually an ultra-right party, or will it become one? Will ANO advocate racist and xenophobic opinions like the Italian politician and leader of the right-wing extremist Lega party, Matteo Salvini, who would love to deport the Roma from Italy?
Such questions are appropriate, especially for Romani voters. An old saying applies here: “You shall be known by the company you keep.” According to that maxim, the ANO movement seems to be going the way of Viktor Orbán or Marine Le Pen, and that is decidedly not good news for Romani citizens here in the Czech Republic.
