Pyrrhic victory of Social Democrats

The early parliamentary election, which took place in the Czech Republic past weekend, brought several surprises. First, although the Czech Social Democratic party, which was considered a favorite, has won, the 20.46 percent of votes it won is equal to defeat. Second, the result of the party ANO, recently founded by billionaire Andrej Babis, came quite unexpected. The organization, whose title is translated as “Yes,” earned 18.65 percent of votes and took the second place. Thirdly, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, which according to sociologists was supposed to take the second place, reached the finish line third, having earned 14.9 percent of votes. Fourth, seven parties entered the Chamber of Deputies, for the first time in entire history of Czech parliamentary elections.

Right-wing party TOP 09 (“Tradition Responsibility Prosperity 09”) earned 11.9 percent of votes. The ruling party (2010-13), right-wing Civic Democratic Party (ODS) found itself as low as on the fifth place – 7.72 percent of voters supported it. At the 2010 elections the ODS won 20 percent of votes.

Dawn of Direct Democracy Party, which was founded by entrepreneur Tomio Okamura not long before the elections, earned 6.88 percent of votes. The bloc Christian and Democratic Union – the Czechoslovak People’s Party, which returned to parliament after three-year absence – came seventh with 6.77 percent of votes.

The rest 17 parties and civic movements, which took part in the elections, failed to overcome the 5 percent election threshold.

According to President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman, the result of early elections shows the failure of previous government parties and to some extent of the oppositional Social Democratic Party, whereas the success of ANO movement reflects discontent with the elections. The president stated that he is against holding another election, which would be the worst decision. Therefore all politicians, he added, have to try to create a stable government.

And ANO as a new party in parliament should use the chance and translate the discontent of the voters into bills, Zeman emphasized in an interview to Czech Television. In his opinion, the low turnout, which made nearly 60 percent of voters, was caused by lack of any attractive program offered by any party to stimulate the voters to go to the voting stations.

Most of Czech commentators agree that billionaire Andrej Babis’s party ANO 2011 is the real winner in these elections. Meanwhile, it is not quite clear what will happen to Social Democratic Party (CSSD), headed by Bohuslav Sobotka, and which has won the highest number of mandates (50) in the lower house of parliament. For this party expected to win over 30 percent and even hoped to form the government independently.

According to Aktualne.cz, ordinary citizens sought changes, and these changes are embodied now by Babis and his team, therefore the ANO party must undertake the largest part of responsibility.

“Babis has made many promises both to the left and the right. He offered a well-functioning state. Now he cannot say he is a new person in politics and that he does not know how it should be done,” the publication stresses. Milos Zeman is another winner in this election, according to Aktualne.cz, because the role of the president will be crucial after the election negotiations because of unstable situation.

Former right-center governmental parties, ODS and TOP 09, with most of their voters going to Babis, suffered the greatest losses.

Meanwhile, Czech newspaper Pravo expresses an opinion that nothing will change for the better after these elections, if citizens don’t start to behave actively and apply a democratic way of thinking. After the fall of Communist regime in 1989, people pinned unrealistic expectations on political parties, at the same time disdaining party membership, the publication writes. “People simply got disappointed, for most of new parties founded were projects of narrow post-November elite and did not grow organically from civic society, like it happened in the West. Since 1989 the facade of democracy as a number of institutions and mechanisms has been created quite quickly, but it takes much longer to create a democracy as a culture of thinking. And in democracy without democrats people make higher demands to the state than to themselves, besides they are convinced that powers that be are responsible for functioning of democracy. If Czech citizens do not change their attitude, there will be no radical changes even after the elections. In other words, if most of the society does not learn to work as active citizens and democrats, totally unrealistic expectations will again be pinned on politicians,” Pravo emphasizes.

The Day asked political commentator of Ludove noviny Daniel KAISER to comment on the grounds of Babis’s success and what conclusion can be made about the Czech society, part of which still votes for the Communist party.

“The fact that the ANO party took the second place is of course the most important news of the parliamentary election in the Czech Republic. This movement was founded by Czech oligarch Andrej Babis three years ago, but it has not enjoyed much of success till this year. Then Babis took the business in his hands and hired several public persons (a former diplomat, an actor, and a journalist), as well as, what is most important, American PR agency PSB. In June he also bought the MAFTA publishing house, which publishes two leading newspapers. One of them, Mlada fronta Dnes has long-standing traditions of journalistic investigations and a long list of corrupted politicians it destroyed. It was the only mass medium in the country, which could harm Babis because of its huge influence. Babis’s past is controversial: in the 1990s he accumulated a capital in a quite suspicious way, and later he was accused of insider trading and other crimes. This dark side of his life has not been recalled in the press during the campaign. Vice versa, Andrej Babis built his campaign on the story of an honest man, who made his career owing to his hard labor and has nothing to do with corruption.

“What does it say about the Czech society? Babis took votes away for the most part from traditional right-wing parties. These people already do not care whether people like Babis were members of the Communist party or probably even agents of secret Communist services.

“This is a new phenomenon. There is an overwhelming feeling that corruption has become the most serious problem facing the Czech Republic. Current elections have confirmed that Czech society is developing according to a 20-year-long cycle. In this case, it means that after 20 years people have gotten tired of the system and political establishment. And they are pressing the reset button.

“Of course, it would be impossible, if right-wing parties had not had any corruption scandals. But in these interrelations there were signs of improving situation, the police could act freely, and in June it practically overthrew the previous government under quite suspicious circumstances. The anti-corruption mania was followed with clamor, partially fueled by the media which are going through economic difficulties and are disappointed.

“Lack of real leaders was another big problem for traditional right-wing parties. Three outstanding figures, Vaclav Havel, Vaclav Klaus, and Milos Zeman, entered the politics in 1989. Since then there have not been political figures of this kind.

“What will happen next? Probably, a coalition between Social Democrats, Babis party, and the Catholic People’s Party will be created. But the agreement between them will be shaky, so possible that another election will be held in a year or two. Till that time Babis will put efforts to come first. He has money, mass media, and the spirit of the time is on his side. The following years will show whether Czechs belong more to the West, where oligarchs don’t get so high, or to the East.”