Prague, Feb 21 (CTK) – The Czech rightist opposition Civic Democratic Party (ODS) has reached agreement with the Freeholder Party on cooperation before the October general election, ODS chairman Petr Fiala said after his party’s executive council supported it yesterday.
The Freeholder Party is to have about 40 places on the ODS’s lists of candidates in all regions.
Fiala said the alliance will prevent fragmentation of forces on the right of the political spectrum and strengthen the two parties’ position in the election.
“The ODS has long stood up for tradespeople, for medium- and small-sized businesspeople,” Fiala said.
He said the two parties’ programmes have a lot of similar points.
In the election campaign, the two parties will present themselves as the ODS with support of the Freeholders, the ODS said in a press release.
Petr Bajer, chairman of the Freeholder Party, said the two parties have been negotiating about cooperation for about three months.
He and Fiala said their parties want to help active and industrious people and reduce the bureaucratic burden.
In the 2013 general election, the Freeholder Party gained 0.26 percent of the vote and it is not represented in the Chamber of Deputies. The ODS gained 7.72 percent of the vote and has 16 mandates in the lower house of parliament.
ms/dr/hol
