The loss the Czech senior government Social Democrats’ (ČSSD) suffered in the regional election is not to blame on a bad performance of regional governments, but the cause more probably lies in the national-level policy, President Miloš Zeman told Blesk.cz yesterday.
Prague, Oct 9 (CTK) – The loss the Czech senior government Social Democrats’ (CSSD) suffered in the regional election is not to blame on a bad performance of regional governments, but the cause more probably lies in the national-level policy, President Milos Zeman told Blesk.cz yesterday.
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka’s CSSD is a part of the centre-left national government that also includes the ANO movement and the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL). The CSSD has dominated the country’s self-rule regions for eight years now.
“The regional election became a kind of a national vote. In this respect, their result may indicate that of the [2017] general election,” Zeman said.
In the regional election, too, people voted according to their assessment of the national policy, Zeman said.
He said he did not expect such election results.
In the past, regional elections were usually won by the parties that were in opposition in parliament, Zeman said in an interview with Blesk.cz.
This time, the ANO movement won as an opposition party within the government coalition, Zeman said and congratulated ANO and its leader, billionaire Finance Minister Andrej Babis, on the election victory.
ANO is a kind of opposition within the government coalition. “In this sense, the opposition won once again now,” he said.
In the October 7-8 election to the assemblies of the 13 self-rule regions, ANO won in nine regions, while CSSD, which comfortably won four years ago and filled 11 posts of regional governors, won only in two.
In post-election negotiations, the parties that finished second and third often ally against the winner, Zeman said.
That is why ANO is unlikely to occupy the posts of governors in all nine regions where it won, but it will occupy a majority of them, Zeman said.
He said ANO has a great coalition potential. He can imagine ANO forming [regional] coalitions with the Communists (KSCM), the CSSD as well as the [right-wing] Civic Democrats (ODS), but not with the other rightist party, TOP 09.
As far as the CSSD’s loss is concerned, Zeman said he really does not ascribe it to bad performance of the regions.
“I can responsibly say the outgoing regional leaderships deserve respect for the work they have done. If the cause [of the CSSD’s failure] does not rest in a bad performance of the regions, including their governors for the CSSD, it must lie on the national level,” Zeman said.
Zeman said the regional election result may indicate the result of the next general election but it will not influence the lineup of the present national government coalition.
The next general election will be held in about a year, a situation where it does not pay to destroy a government coalition, Zeman said.
He reminded that he personally appealed for ANO to stay in the government amid a recent government crisis provoked by a disputed restructuring of the national police’s elite anti-mafia and ani-corruption units.
Zeman expressed satisfaction with the weak election result of the rightist opposition TOP 09. He said TOP 09 chairman Miroslav Kalousek based his party’s programme on attacks against him and Babis.
“I wondered how many voters this programme could attract. Of course, I am glad at its being a failure,” Zeman said.
Zeman also reminded of the CSSD’s defeat in the first regional elections in 2000 when he was CSSD chairman and prime minister.
He said he definitely would not like to cheaply criticise the CSSD and rejoice at its failure. It is the CSSD that must decide on possible changes in the party itself, he said.
Zeman, former CSSD head and PM, who retired in 2002, fell out with the CSSD after a group of CSSD lawmakers prevented his election as president by parliament in 2003. Zeman considers Sobotka one of the “traitors” to blame for his defeat, observers say.
Zeman was elected president in the first direct presidential race in early 2013.
rtj/dr
