Prague, Nov 23 (CTK) – The Czech opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) are looking for a “tough guy” in its leadership as an antipode of the party’s current chairman Petr Fiala who will be defending his post in two months, Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes yesterday.
Such a personality would play the role of a certain “detonator” next to the calm and reserved Fiala, 51, professor and former university rector.
“We do not feel ashamed of the current leadership, but it is boring. Petr Fiala is nice, yet he would need two or three ´detonators, some ´quarterbacks´ to accompany him. Otherwise, it is too professorial, we make a too sterile impression. After all, politics is also an entertainment sometimes,” one of the ODS members told MfD.
The Civic Democrats will elect a new leadership at the party´s congress in January. While Fiala will most probably defend his chairmanship, a strong fight for the posts of deputy chairpersons is expected. The current ones, except for MEP Jan Zahradil and Libeznice Mayor Martin Kupka, are “almost invisible, and consequently, other candidates are being sought, LN adds.
Even Fiala, who rejects politics based on quips and insults to opponents,” admits that “a bad guy” would suit the party, MfD writes.
“I am fully consciously and intentionally, but also thanks to my character, a cultivated politician of Western type, which is my great long-term advantage. However, in a media political debate, as we know it yesterday, it may not address all social layers in a short term, naturally,” Fiala said.
He added that he can understand his fellow party members´ need of “some puncher” along with him.
However, so far the ODS has failed to generate such a “superstar” to better promote its label.
As a consequence, those who feel being like that themselves try to take up the chance. One of them is MP Marek Benda, 47, a representative of a rather conservative, Christian platform in the ODS. However, some Civic Democrats are against his nomination saying he is connected with “the old ODS,” MfD says.
Kupka plans to defend his post of deputy chairman. He has a competitor, MP Adolf Beznoska, who will also seek nomination in the Central Bohemia Region with his vision of “being another type of politician than Fiala,” MfD adds
Sociologist Daniel Prokop, from the Median agency, is of the view that the strategy of more faces would help the ODS, but he says Fiala´s antipode should not express too radical views.
The former senior government ODS, which led the cabinets in 2006-2009 and in 2010-2013, finished fifth, gaining some 7.7 percent of the vote in the autumn 2013 early elections to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament, which has been its worst result since its establishment in 1991.
Fiala was elected ODS leader in January 2014. He became the party ́s fourth chairman after its founder Vaclav Klaus, ODS leader in 1991-2002 and president in 2003-2013, Mirek Topolanek (2002-2010) and Petr Necas (2010-June 2013) who resigned as PM and ODS head amid a corruption and wiretapping scandal.
hol/t/pv
