Political “winners” of the year? Turek, Konečná and Pekarová. Bartoš mainly lost

“The jumpers of the year are clear, they are Filip Turek and Kateřina Konečná,” political scientist Josef Mlejnek told Novinkám.

However, according to him, they do not have a guarantee that they will maintain the position acquired in the past year. MEP Turk, who is the most visible face of Motorists, does not want to run for the House of Representatives next year. “It is possible that as soon as the Turk disappears, the Motorists will drive back to the garage,” remarked Mlejnek.

According to political scientist Jan Kubáček, the Motorists, who held their first congress in December and grew to more than a thousand members, will not be able to separate themselves from Robert Šlachta’s Oath, with which they ran in the European elections and won over 10 percent of voters. “So far, it gives me the impression that the chairman of Motorists Macinka cannot do without Mr. Šlachta, and Mr. Šlachta cannot do without Mr. Macinka,” he noted.

The second jumper is the project of KSČM head Kateřina Konečné Stačilo! In the European elections, he won 9.6 percent, in regional mandates in 11 regions. Next year it will be Enough! run as a movement and communists on his candidates. However, the movement promotes practically the same program as the KSČM, which was still well below five percent in 2023. “KSČM has already been written off, now it has a chance,” noted Mlejnek.

Andrej Babiš’s ANO movement also looks back positively on the past year. All published polls predict a YES victory in the next elections to the House of Representatives and a gain of around 30 percent. “He can get enough coalition partners, he has a good chance that ANO will rule after the next elections. He should form a government with someone. He is not in danger of others bypassing him,” remarked Mlejnek.

In addition, according to Kubáček, ANO vice-chairman Karel Havlíček has greatly strengthened within the movement. “He accepted a personified campaign and is considered a candidate for prime minister,” he noted. Next year, Havlíček will stand at the head of the candidate list in Prague, where ANO has historically had the most difficult terrain and the worst election results. He is currently conducting a contact campaign and trying to convince right-wing voters.

Of the government parties, the Starosts are doing the most, who are currently strengthening at the expense of the Pirates. In addition, the STAN ministers have been staying out of the mainstream of criticism for several weeks, which is especially aimed at Prime Minister Petar Fiala and Finance Minister Zbyňek Stanjura (both ODS) for the budget.

Of the politicians from the government parties, in the past year the South Bohemian Governor Martin Kuba managed to achieve the greatest success, winning over 47 percent of the voters for “his” ODS in the regional elections. The seat in South Moravia was again defended by Lidovec governor Jan Grolich, who led the Spolu coalition to victory in the region. Both succeeded in spite of the nationwide trend of decreasing preferences of the governing parties.

However, Kubáček would also call Markéta Pekarová Adamová a “winner”, whose TOP 09 is around 4 percent in surveys. “She can push priorities for TOP 09, even though her party has long-term preferences below five percent. For me, she is the most successful lobbyist in the political world. He can push an unprecedented amount for his weight,” he noted.

TOP 09 won two seats in the European Parliament in the Spolu coalition, and is currently negotiating strong positions for its leading representatives in the next parliamentary elections. Adamová should be number one in Prague, against which part of the ODS protests.

On the contrary, the past year turned out badly for the Pirates, who since the middle of it have been solving problems in the digitalization of construction management, which eventually led to the dismissal of their chairman Ivan Bartoš from the position of Minister for Regional Development.

Not a single election went well for the pirates. In the European elections, they defended only one mandate out of three, in the regional elections they retained only three mandates out of 99. With that, they also lost the state contribution for mandates in the amount of 24 million crowns per year, which made up a significant part of the party’s budget.

“Ivan Bartoš – he’s not the president, he’s not the minister, he didn’t manage digitization, the Pirates lost seats in the government and percentages on preferences,” Mlejnek summed up his feelings about which of the politicians can be called the “loser” of the year.

However, Tomio Okamura’s SPD is not particularly worth it. While at the beginning of the year their support was around 10 percent, now polls give them only around five. Because of this, the party will run in the parliamentary elections with the PRO party, which is represented by lawyer Jindřich Rajchl.