Prague, Dec 28 (CTK) – Czech billionaire Pavel Sehnal has decided to revive the Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) political party of the 1990s and had it registered with the Interior Ministry in September, server Seznam Zpravy wrote on Wednesday, adding that the ODA has its seat at the address of Sehnal’s SPGroup.
The chiefs of the group are members of the party leadership.
Sehnal’s group includes the Slavia insurance company, the water park and a hotel in Cestlice near Prague, the exhibition grounds in Prague-Letnany and the AAABYTY.CZ real estate company.
He has been interested in politics for some time. At the end of 2013, Sehnal hired former prime Petr Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS) as a lobbyist.
Before Sehnal, other two billionaires started to devote themselves to politics. Andrej Babis, owner of the Agrofert holding, initiated the foundation of the ANO movement in 2011.
Ivo Valenta, owner of the Synot lottery company and senator, is behind the Freeholder Party.
According to the server, Valenta will provide information on his political ambitions at a press conference in the latter half of January.
The foundation petition says “the ODA is being founded to be active mainly in local politics and it wants to support business and push for electronic elections on all levels.”
Seznam wrote that Sehnal wants to meet the founders of the original ODA, Daniel Kroupa and Pavel Bratinka, who invented the name in 1990.
Kroupa does not think the ODA’s revival is a good idea. “The party has fulfilled its historical role,” he said.
“A new party should be founded with a new programme. The key role must be played by distinct personalities, not the used name,” Kroupa said.
The roots of the original ODA go back to the dissidents’ flat seminars held in the 1980s. In the 1990s, the rightist party had a relatively stable range of supporters. Until December 1997, the ODA was a member of government coalitions. Its representatives were linked to a great extent with the post-communist transformation of the economy.
The ODA members who were government members included Vladimir Dlouhy, Jan Kalvoda, Tomas Jezek, Jiri Skalicky and later also Vlasta Parkanova and Karel Kuhnl.
The party gradually started to lose its influence in consequence of scandals with its financing.
It was unable to put up a list of candidates for the 1998 general election. Four years later, it was a member of the Quad-Coalition project which disintegrated over the ODA’s debts before the election, however. The ODA eventually ran alone, but it did not succeed. It ended as from the end of 2007.
