The ANO party wants to remain a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) after the 2024 EU elections despite the significant shift of the party from a central liberal movement to a populist and nationalist grouping.
On Sunday, the ANO’s affinity to liberal values was discussed between the party leadership and ALDE co-chairs Timmy Dooley and Ilhan Kyuchyuk, who travelled to Prague for a fact-finding mission on Sunday. On Monday, they discussed ANO’s ‘liberalism’ with Czech experts.
The reason for the mission was the criticism of ANO at the recent ALDE congress, which spoke out against the behaviour of ANO leader and former Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš.
According to the Czech News Agency, deputy chairman of ANO, Karel Havlíček, described the meeting between ANO representatives and the ALDE delegation as “friendly and very constructive”. He also emphasised that ANO wants to remain in a liberal family.
However, Hospodářské noviny reported that Czech political scientists and other experts agreed during their meeting with ALDE representatives that Babiš has never been a liberal. The result could have unfortunate consequences for ANO, and the issue should be discussed again at the ALDE level during its September 2023 meeting in Bucharest.
As EURACTIV.cz understand, ANO’s future in ALDE is problematic not only regarding Babiš’s shift towards the right wing.
There are other influential Czech political parties whose politics are much closer to the liberal centre and could be interested in cooperation with ALDE – such as the Pirate Party (currently in Greens/EFA) or the Mayors and Independents (now not part of any political family).
However, currently in the Czech governing coalition, these two parties refuse to stay in the same European political family as ANO. Thus, problematic and potentially illiberal ANO could be replaced with more centrist Czech partners.
(Aneta Zachová | EURACTIV.cz)
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