Prague, Nov 19 (CTK) – The opposition Party of Direct Democracy (SPD) would like to gain up to 10 percent of the vote in the next general election due in October 2017 tot be able to participate in the talks on a new government, SPD chairman Tomio Okamura told CTK during its national conference Friday.
In his speech, Okamura called the party’s result in the October regional election, in which the SPD had won representatives in ten out of 13 regions, “a relatively fair success.
Unlike the regional elections, in which the SPD was running in a coalition with the Citizens Rights’ Party (SPO), Okamura’s movement will go to the 2017 general election alone.
The SPD conference approved the decision to run without the SPO Friday.
“The movement will run solo in the upcoming elections and its chairman Tomio Okamura will be the election leader,” the final statement of the SPD conference says.
However, personalities who are not SPD members might also appear on its list of election candidates, Okamura added.
“As far as the general election is concerned, we expect to gain between 8 and 10 percent. The reason is that during the regional election a major part of citizens did not know our movement due to a media blockade and censorship. The regional elections have considerably changed this awareness of us,” Okamura said.
His party gained some 5 percent of the vote in the regional elections. The latest opinion polls predict similar support in the upcoming election.
“We must be striving for a double-digit result since this will give us a great chance to become a partner in the coalition talks and to push through our coalition programme,” Okamura said.
The SPD succeeded in entering the governing coalition in the Usti region, north Bohemia, in which it had pushed through a ban on accepting migrants in the territory of the region and drafting a bill on the direct election and irrevocability of regional governors and mayors in the coalition agreement.
Okamura also said in his speech to the delegates that the election to the Chamber of Deputies would be crucial for the SPD.
“If we do not succeed, another alternative will rise in the Czech Republic and our movement will end,” Okamura warned.
hol/dr
