ANO Changes Tactics: Going It Alone in Senate Elections While Eyeing Governor Posts

The ANO movement has abandoned the idea of contesting this autumn's Czech Senate elections as a united bloc with its coalition partners in government — SPD and the Motorists — and has decided to field its own candidates in 24 electoral districts. This was announced by ANO's first deputy chairman, Karel Havlíček.

Tomio Okamura's party (SPD) will put forward 17 candidates, with direct rivalries against ANO expected in 15 districts. The Motorists, meanwhile, have opted not to field candidates of their own and plan instead to back nominees from their coalition partners.

Why ANO decided to go it alone

Back at the start of the year, ANO chairman Andrej Babiš called for the governing parties to run jointly in the Senate. According to Havlíček, however, the prevailing view within the movement was that success would come more easily with ANO's own candidates. "We considered all the options and never categorically said we would run together. Going it alone is the most honest path. We have strong candidates, and we believe in ourselves," he wrote.

Opposition parties currently hold 23 of the 27 Senate seats up for re-election, compared with just one for ANO. In theory, the governing parties could secure a majority by winning every district, but political analysts consider this unlikely.

Where ANO stands the best chance

According to political scientist Petr Just, ANO will almost certainly increase its presence in the Senate despite its status as the ruling party — the upper house of parliament traditionally tends to counterbalance the composition of the Chamber of Deputies, meaning the opposition usually fares better. "ANO effectively has nothing to lose. But I don't think the movement will gain control of the Senate. It will certainly strengthen its position — the only question is by how much," the expert notes.

Just says ANO has the best odds in areas where it already wields influence — where its representatives hold posts as governors, mayors or deputy mayors. This applies above all to the Moravian-Silesian Region, where Josef Bělica of ANO serves as governor, as well as to border regions and large, traditionally left-leaning cities such as Karviná and Ostrava.

Karviná is in fact the only district where ANO is defending an incumbent seat: instead of Senator Ondřej Feber, who is not seeking another term, the party has nominated Orlová mayor Lenka Bříškovská. Her main rival will be SPD candidate Pavel Staněk.

Betting on doctors and local politicians

In Ostrava, ANO is counting on deputy mayor and Poruba mayor Lucie Baránková Vilamová, who will face off against incumbent senator and physician Ondřej Šimetka of ODS. In Česká Lípa, MP and local mayor Jitka Volfová will run against Liberec Region governor Martin Půta.

The movement is also betting on candidates from the medical field: in Brno, pediatric oncologist Jaroslav Štěrba is running, while in Trutnov, the head of the ophthalmology department, Zuzana Hovancová, is a candidate. In Trutnov, incidentally, three candidates represent the governing coalition, while the opposition has fielded a single contender — though according to Just, there's no need to worry about rivalry among coalition allies, since ANO clearly dominates it.

Leaders of ANO and SPD have already said that, like the five opposition parties, they will agree to mutually support candidates in the second round of voting. According to the political scientist, a genuine success for ANO would mean winning seven or more seats — while holding on to just its current single seat would count as a failure for the movement.

Read also: Brno: What to See and Where to Go

Source: seznamzpravy.cz