Prague, Oct 23 (CTK) – Parties and movements that have not contributed to freedom in the Czech Republic in the past 25 years won the weekend parliamentary election, Cardinal and Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka told CTK on Monday.
Without mentioning any concrete party, he was commenting on the election triumph of the ANO movement with almost 30 percent of the votes, followed by the Civic Democrats (ODS) and two newcomers, the Pirates and the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), and on the rout of most traditional and established political parties.
Duka congratulated all parties on their success, but added that his congratulation is intended especially to those parties that were playing “fair play.”
He recommended that parties’ representatives respect the Czech Constitution.
“We ourselves are the biggest enemies of democracy in our country if we aren’t honest and truthful citizens responsible for our common welfare, not just fighting for our respective parties,” Duka said.
Duka said he did not believe Czech voters had voted against the existence of the EU.
Out of Czech parties’ leaders, some want a deep reform of the EU, while others use the EU as a slogan without thinking about steps that should be taken to re-establish political balance, Duka said without elaborating.
“To an extent, the policy of the current shape of the EU is losing,” he said.
The election-winning ANO has recently criticised Brussels, while the SPD, one of the surprises of the weekend elections, demands a referendum for Czechs to decide on whether to leave the EU.
Duka also commented on last weekend’s voter turnout, saying various appeals on people to take part in the polls have been rather ineffective, since only a few more percent of voters turned up at the polling stations, compared with the previous elections four years ago.
Duka said young people’s participation increased against the previous election. On the other hand, some of the previous older voters shunned the election now, he said.
