THE ANO (“Yes”) party, led by Andrej Babis, an agro-industrialist billionaire, won a clear victory in the Czech general election on October 21st. Like other populist politicians, Mr Babis attacked established political parties as a cartel of insiders, despite himself serving as finance minister from 2014-17. “Traditional parties play this game of left and right, but they are not left and right,” Mr Babis says. “They have the same programme: power and money.” The message worked. ANO took 29.6% of the vote and 78 of 200 seats.
But as in many European countries, Czech politics is fragmenting. Nine parties will enter parliament, including everything from communists to far-right xenophobes, and there is no obvious coalition. Czech unemployment is low, the economy is growing and wages are rising. Yet voters seem more focused on fears that the European Union will force their country to accept refugees, and the sense that corrupt insiders have cornered the gains from the...Continue reading
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