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The ANO movement is still a child. Can it survive adolescence?
It was not so long ago that businessman Andrej Babiš\’s deliberate public appearance, lamenting the octopus of corruption and corruption in political parties, became his gateway into the political world. Few now remember that the original title included the year of his birth, 2011. In other words, this is only the eighth year for Babish\’s toys. Few also remember what the acronym ANO actually stands for. Let us recall that it stands for “Action by Disgruntled Citizens.” The question is, what were they dissatisfied with? In the case of the Founding Fathers, the answer is simple.
Economic power needed to be guaranteed by political power, since the “corrupt and corrupting” system was already reluctant to do so. Other reasons for “disaffected citizens” also need to be considered. Let us begin with the undeniable fact that the people around Babiš were and are not political amateurs or novices. Vondráček, Žurová, Faltínek, Kršlová, and others had extensive experience in the ODS and in the mother party of the ČSSD. The former prime minister\’s courtship of Kassel (European Democratic Party) was also unsuccessful. One gets the impression that these veteran matadors willingly joined Babiš, well aware of the future problems of the party that was constantly denounced and condemned by Babiš, and well aware of the financial potential of the new movement\’s head. It is likely that they were also willingly accepted because they brought experience and political acumen that Babish lacked at the time.
Let\’s forget about his representation. Later, accusations of corruption became a fundamental point of the ANO\’s political program. There was not much evidence, and things later turned out to be different, but the hundreds of repeated allegations of corruption and promises to root them out took hold; the ANO did not win the early parliamentary elections in 2013 by a narrow margin, but it clearly won the elections four years later.
Now that it is an independent government after several years of joint administration, the ANO cannot cry corruption any more; the ANO must come up with a real program, one that is not just a “one-size-fits-all” approach, but one that is not just a “one-size-fits-all” approach. It is clear that this will not be easy. The first warning was the 2018 Senate elections. The candidates of this movement completely failed and lost one Senate seat. This is because these elections turned out to have no personality for a single party with a majority. This year\’s European Parliament elections were won by the ANO, but not overwhelmingly, with a 72% turnout.
Currently, the ANO has little chance of forming a coalition and is held in power by the Communist Party and the president. (Where its members will go is unknown to me.) Babiš can only resort to political apathy and promises that are impossible to grieve. Babish would certainly like to stick with the political right, but it has become clear time and again that the political right is not on Babish\’s side. Thus, slowly but surely, Babish is becoming the number one problem for his movement. Time will tell how all the players will deal with Babiš.