Nearly Half of ANO Voters Want Turek to Resign, Nature Protection Seen as a Priority

According to an August poll of eight hundred supporters of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš's ANO movement, 46% of respondents believe Petr Turek should step down from all his political posts following the car accident he was involved in. Twenty-nine percent opposed his resignation, while a quarter said they had no clear opinion on the matter.

The survey also revealed that ANO voters react quite sharply to inflammatory statements made by members of the Motoristé sobě (Motorists for Themselves) party. Exactly half consider it unacceptable to call environmental NGOs "terrorists." Only a fifth of respondents agreed with the Motorists' leader's remark branding the Hnutí Duha movement "terrorist," while thirty percent said they don't see the issue as a problem at all.

Controversial remarks sparked outrage

Even stronger disapproval was directed at Turek's comment about "parasites who need to be exterminated" — a clear jab at officials of the Ministry of the Environment. 61% of respondents called the statement unacceptable.

But the greatest outrage was triggered by another remark — from Motorists' leader Macinka, who called his ideological opponents "inferior people." This statement was condemned by 68% of surveyed ANO voters.

Nature protection seen as a government priority

A third of respondents believe the Motorists are suited to run the Ministry of the Environment. At the same time, 27% expressed doubts about the competence of the ministry under party member Igor Červený, who now heads it.

Nature protection clearly matters to ANO voters: according to the poll, 74% believe the government should make it one of its priorities.

The study's authors also asked whether ANO voters would change their political preferences if their coalition partners — the Motorists — pushed an agenda they disagreed with. 63% said they would remain loyal to their party, 8% gave no clear answer, 27% said they might consider voting for another party, and 2% said they would most likely not vote at all.

Greenpeace urges Babiš to take notice

Jaroslav Bihan, a representative of Greenpeace Czech Republic, commented on the poll results, saying that if nature truly matters to Babiš as much as it does to his voters, he should take these findings seriously and do everything possible to ensure the ministry's leadership is competent and trustworthy — especially given that 27% of ANO voters are willing to consider switching parties if the movement keeps backing Motorists' initiatives that are unpopular among its own supporters.

He noted that many stereotypes and "well-established" claims exist about ANO voters, yet the data shows that protecting Czech nature genuinely matters to many of them. That, he said, is why the organization decided to find out how ANO supporters really feel about what's happening around the Ministry of the Environment and the Motorists' actions in this area.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz