Čunek, who is a senator, somewhat surprisingly did not advance to the second round of the election of the chairman, when he finished third behind Excellent and current party chairman Marian Jurečka. He then told the news that it was actually the expected result.
“I would probably be second and go to a shootout with Mark, if there were no candidates with a similar background to mine. However, nothing is happening to me personally,” he noted.
Regarding the new chairman, according to him, there is no choice but to believe in miracles. “The command that brought this ship into bankruptcy is the same command that is supposed to pull it out of bankruptcy,” he said. “But a miracle can happen, and I would ultimately like that for the people,” he added.
MP and unsuccessful candidate for president Šimon Heller is also not enthusiastic about the new president. “I respect the choice, but my conservative beliefs do not change, that the family is a man, a woman and children, and that a woman is a woman and a man is a man,” Heller told Novinkám.
He added that he does not say anything that should not be written in the statutes, and therefore he does not need to be disciplined in his speeches, as Výborný calls for.
According to the outgoing first vice-chairman of the party, Jan Bartošek, the task of raising the party, which has preferences of around two percent, does not lie only with the chairman, but also with other top politicians of the KDU-ČSL.
“It is a matter for the entire future presidency and, above all, it is also a matter for the parliamentary club. This means that we all have to work hard and help the newly elected leadership in order to really turn it around,” he told Fairpress.
According to him, the People’s Party should now start focusing on topics that really bother people. “It is absolutely crucial to add affordable rental housing. This is absolutely essential for the support of young families and the future development of the Czech Republic,” he added.
According to political scientist Lubomír Kopeček from the Department of Political Science at the Masaryk University in Brno, the election of Mark Výborný mainly means continuity. “It is part of the mainstream and the idea of holding the Spolu coalition,” he explained.
The political scientist does not think that any of the candidates should lead the people out of the current situation where they have low preferences in the polls.
“The space to reach new voters is limited. If they are liberal, it will destroy their identity,” he added, adding that without a broader KDU-ČSL alliance, he does not have much chance.