Martin Kuba, the governor of South Bohemia, made no secret of his criticism of the Spolu coalition, according to which the ODS should return to independent candidates. Now he is even more on the horse, because he himself won over 47 percent of the votes in his region with the ODS brand.
“The situation cannot be trivialized. From the point of view of next year and the parliamentary elections, I would consider what happened to be a very bad result,” he commented on the overall result of his party after the elections.
And doubts regarding the coalition – on whose success or failure the political career of Petr Fiala directly depends – are starting to increase. Civic democrats wonder whether their weaker partners – the People’s Party and TOP 09 – are reaping its benefits.
“We are worried about the parliamentary elections”
On Monday, the Prague ODS discussed the results of the elections and, according to Novinek, no one was enthusiastic. “We are worried about the parliamentary elections,” admitted the vice-chairman of the Prague ODS Vojtěch Kos.
Only Senate elections were held in the capital. In the municipality elections two years ago, Spolu won here and ODS holds the post of mayor, the coalition was also successful in the parliamentary elections. However, the current results from the regions indicated that this might not happen again.
“ANO won one third of the votes and our result is an important signal from the people that they are not satisfied with the situation. It’s not enough to just run the ‘Antibabiš’ campaign,” noted Kos.
On Monday, the ODS in the Moravian-Silesian region, i.e. the region from which the other man of the party – Minister of Finance Zbyněk Stanjura, also comes – addressed the issue. Local civil democrats within the party were among those who significantly supported the creation of Spolu from the very beginning, and whose regional candidate with TOP 09 four years ago was one of the pilot projects that was supposed to prove that joining on the right makes sense. But the regional elections here did not go well for the coalition.
The ANO movement won 47 percent here and does not need anyone for the government in the region, the Spolu coalition took only 13.7 percent and finished third. It was also skipped by the Mayors, led by former ANO hetman Ivo Vondrák, who jumped from zero to 11 mandates.
“According to the numbers I have seen so far, more voters of the government coalition came than in the European elections, but they did not come to vote for Spolu. We now have to decide whether it was because of the ODS, the People’s Party, TOP 09 or the campaign management,” Zdeněk Nytra, chairman of the ODS senators, told Fairpress.
He himself – no matter how disappointed he was with the election result – says he is not rejecting Spulo yet. “We know that some votes would fall into the channel,” he pointed out.
The consternation of the election results was reflected in the resolution adopted by the regional council that the representatives of the Moravian-Silesian ODS in the top bodies of the party should propose the organization of an ideological conference or program congress.
“This is not an electoral congress,” emphasized Nytra. It is said that the parties mainly need to talk about what is the cause of the current failure.
They pulled folk and TOP 09
However, they do not hide their disappointment even in the Liberec region, where the ODS decided to join the Spolu coalition only with its new – elected last year – leadership.
During the signing of the coalition agreement for the regional elections, TOP 09 chairman Markéta Pekarová Adamová claimed to journalists that Together in the North of Bohemia has the ambition to defeat the local favorite Martin Půta (SLK). But Půta eventually won the election, for the fourth time, while the Spolu coalition finished third with the loss of two representatives for the ODS compared to the previous election period. Now he has three. One populist woman and one “topák” made their way to the regional council on a joint candidate list. Lidovci previously sat in the Liberec council for the last time in 2000, then also only thanks to a coalition candidate, specifically the Coalition of Four.
“The voters did not come,” explained the collapse of the leader of the Spolu candidate Edvard Kožušník (ODS). The Liberec ODS is also waiting to “say” the results, but it will be only after the second round of senate elections, which will end on Saturday.
Even in the Pilsen Region, where the Minister of Culture Martin Baxa is from, the ODS is talking about a loser, together with TOP 09 it won 16.5 percent. And there is a call for changes.
Roman Jurečko, a member of the ODS leadership in the Pilsen region, also wants to join them. He is said to have remained silent for fear that someone would not accuse him of spoiling the ODS – in the past he earned the label “godfather” due to his informal influence on the Pilsen ODS. “It’s terribly easy to make excuses on my behalf,” he pointed out.
“I said at the regional council that we have unlearned to say things the way they should be said. I myself am learning it again,” he told Novinkám.
“We have to return to our right-wingness. There are votes here, everyone knows about them, we just have to do something for that,” Jurečko added.
