Prague, Oct 10 (CTK) – Czech rightist opposition Civic Democrat (ODS) head Petr Fiala rejoices at his party having won three times more votes than its major rival, TOP 09, in the regional voting but both parties have suffered a fourth defeat in a row, Petr Kambersky writes in Lidove noviny (LN) yesterday.
They lost in the 2013 early general election, the 2014 Senate and local elections and in this year’s regional voting.
He writes that it is also noteworthy that the two rightist parties put together gained fewer voters than the senior ruling Social Democrats (CSSD, 15.24 percent), who placed second, not to mention the winning ANO movement of Finance Minister Andrej Babis (21.05 percent).
Kambersky writes that Fiala keeps saying “all were burying us, members were leaving us, but we have stopped the disintegration, reached bottom and are now rising.”
He is right, but it is a question of how great part of the truth this interpretation describes, Kambersky writes.
Since the government of Petr Necas (ODS) fell in mid-2013, more than three years have passed and the “right” is still in a miserable situation, Kambersky writes.
The CSSD was also close to a one-digit result after Stanislav Gross had to leave as prime minister and CSSD head in 2005, but Jiri Paroubek succeeded in scoring the best election result in history within one year and a couple of days, Kambersky writes.
He admits that the situation differed in many aspects. But is it possible to be satisfied with a one-digit result (9.47 percent) in the fourth year since the collapse? Kambersky asks.
With such a strategy, the ODS can only think of an election victory around 2025.
The less than 3.5 percent for the former government TOP 09 is a result which the extra-parliamentary Pirates or Free Citizens Party usually boast of, Kambersky writes.
He writes that the result was naturally affected by the absence of Prague voters the same as the departure of the Mayors and Independents (STAN) movement from the election coalition with TOP 09, yet the election result with Miroslav Kalousek at the head is disastrous, Kambersky writes.
Kalousek, who founded the party in 2009, became its chairman last November, replacing charismatic Prince Karel Schwarzenberg, who attracted many voters to the party.
Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes that MEP Jiri Pospisil, a former ODS member, who ran for TOP 09 in 50th and last position on the list of candidates in the Plzen Region and who was pushed up to first position thanks to voter preferences, could become one of the major personalities to bring voters back to TOP 09 on the national level.
Pospisil is not yet a TOP 09 member.
Now, that TOP 09’s cooperation agreement with STAN, who scored 4.01 percent in the regional election, will end at the end of the year, the party will have to seek a new political partner, HN writes.
It writes that a joint TOP 09-ODS list of candidates could be an alternative, which also Pospisil supported when he said he is “convinced that the right should cooperate.”
Kalousek reacted saying TOP 09 and the ODS cooperate in the Chamber of Deputies very well, but “an election coalition is hampered by an entirely different view of our future in the European Union.”
TOP 09 is pro-European, unlike the ODS.
Schwarzenberg is also sceptical about the unification of the right. “The unification of the right would be fine and useful, but I am afraid that this would take a long time. At the moment, I do not consider this possibility realistic,” he said.
The ODS is also cautious. “Negotiations about boosting the position of the right are definitely considered. But whether this will be in cooperation with TOP 09, or perhaps the Mayors, cannot be said a couple of hours after the elections,” ODS deputy chairman Martin Kupka told HN.
ms/t/hol
