Prague, Jan 31 (CTK) – The Mayors and Independents (opposition STAN) want to run in the Czech autumn general election along with the Christian Democrats (junior ruling KDU-CSL), the European Democrats (extra-parliamentary SNK-ED) and regional parties, the STAN national committee decided on Tuesday.
STAN leader Petr Gazdik said 83 percent of the delegates supported this solution in a secret vote.
Gazdik said he believed the KDU-CSL national conference would approve the proposal soon as well.
He said he would like to discuss the details of the cooperation only after an agreement on this cooperation is reached.
Such a joint project should be able to compete with the strongest players, Gazdik told journalists, referring to the ANO movement of Finance Minister Andrej Babis and the Social Democrats (CSSD) of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.
The SNK-ED and the small regional parties have already said yes to the cooperation.
In the regional elections held in October 2016, the STAN ran together with the SNK-ED and regional movements and it was rather successful.
Gazdik said the STAN is ready to spend 17-20 million crowns on the election campaign.
The parties plan to create a new political grouping, which needs to win at least 5 percent of the vote to enter parliament. If they ran within an alliance, the alliance would have to win 5 percent per each party represented in it.
Gazdik said the integration party is a solution that is in harmony with the Czech constitution according to experts. The leaders of the integration party would have to be members of the new grouping, not members of the parties participating in the project.
The Mayors and Independents and the Christian Democrats launched their negotiations in December.
KDU-CSL chairman Pavel Belobradek said last week that the cooperation is an opportunity to create “a third power” which is badly needed in Czech politics after the fall of the right wing.
In the past several years, the popularity of the right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS) and TOP 09 markedly fell.
