Czech far-right parties to join forces ahead of EU elections

Far-right parties, Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and Trikolora are joining forces either as a coalition or ‘other form of cooperation entities’ ahead of the 2024 European elections, to attract all conservative and patriotic voters.

In the memorandum signed last week, the two parties “declare their common will to participate in the elections planned for 2024 as a coalition or other form of cooperating entities”. In 2024, the Czech Republic will hold the June EU elections and regional and senate elections in the autumn.

The two parties agreed on cooperation to avoid a scenario from the Czech parliamentary elections in 2021 when several smaller right-wing entities ran separately, and votes were split between them. As a result, only SPD (ID affiliated) crossed the 5% threshold required to enter the Czech parliament and became an opposition party.

“The memorandum is the basis for uniting patriotic and conservative forces on the Czech political scene against the governing coalition,” said SPD leader Tomio Okamura last Wednesday when the memorandum was signed.

The fragmentation of the Czech political spectrum in 2021 caused more than one million votes to be “lost”. Around 250,000 of the lost ballots supported right-oriented radical parties, Trikolora included, which were at that time opposing COVID-19 measures. The same parties and movements are currently spreading pro-Russian narratives.

“We must not let the votes fall through,” said Trikolora leader Zuzana Majerová Zahradníková.

According to opinion polls, Freedom and Direct Democracy has the support of around 10% of Czech voters, making it the country’s fourth strongest political party. Trikolora –founded by former right-wing members of the governing Civic Democratic Party (ODS, ECR) – gets around 2%.

Both parties are strongly Eurosceptic. For example, Trikolora pushed for a mandatory referendum on leaving the EU to be held with every parliamentary election in the Czech Republic. Freedom and Direct Democracy is also calling for a referendum and openly advocates for leaving the EU.

(Aneta Zachová | EURACTIV.cz)