NEED TO KNOW

Base Instincts

CZECH REPUBLIC

The right-wing Freedom and Direct Democracy Party’s political billboard in Wenceslas Square in the capital Prague depicts a dark-skinned man staring into the camera. He is angry. His brow is furrowed. He holds a sharp, blood-stained knife in his right hand. He, too, is covered in blood.

“Shortcomings of Czech healthcare will not be solved by imported surgeons,” the sign said, according to Radio Prague International.

The sign illustrates how polarized the political climate in the Central European country has become, a climate that will likely affect Czech regional and senate elections on Sept. 20.

The election follows one next door where the far-right Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) party won large shares of seats in the legislatures of the German states of Thuringia and Saxony. Forces that propelled the AfD to victory – rising xenophobia amid migrant influxes, economic inequality, higher living costs, and so forth – are also at play in the Czech Republic.

This summer, for instance, former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš established the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, uniting far-right parties in Hungary, France, Austria, and others under one banner espousing national interests before all others. Patriots for Europe is the third-largest bloc in the parliament, BRNO Daily reported.

Summer saw particularly ugly campaigns for European Parliament races in the Czech Republic, too, said Balkan Insight.

Babiš’s ANO political party is slated to win the most seats in the regional elections, added BRNO Daily. But ANO politicians won’t necessarily be able to assemble the coalitions needed to control their regions’ governments.

Current Prime Minister Petr Fiala, meanwhile, is hoping his message of responsible government and fiscal constraint will win over voters worried about electing politicians who might cause more problems than they solve, wrote Bloomberg.

Russia’s role in the election is also an important part of the electoral landscape. Russia has meddled in elections in the country and elsewhere before, as Deutsche Welle explained.

Secondly, as Politico reported, Babiš recently accused Fiala of “dreaming about war with Russia,” an indirect way of criticizing Fiala’s pro-Ukraine stance. Fiala’s speech at the Hudson Institute in April provides a window to this anti-Russian perspective. His view is not hard to understand given how the country was under the Soviet thumb during the Cold War and suffered an invasion by the Soviets in 1968 to crack down on reformers. Fiala, additionally, has been critical of pro-Russian European leaders like Hungarian Premier Viktor Orbán, the Guardian added.

But he notes that in the political climate in Europe today, Czech democracy simply can’t avoid external influences.