By Ryszard Czarnecki
Petr Fiala, who is being toyed as the main candidate for the post of czech prime minister, is known for his pro-Polish stance and could bring about a new opening of relations between Warsaw and Prague, writes PiS MP Ryszard Czarnecki
Czech President Miloš Zeman – a pro-Russian socialist with a pinch of Euroscepticism, similar to his predecessor Vaclav Klaus – should entrust Babiš with the formation of a new government. However, Babiš – paradoxically originally from Slovakia and at the same time registered as a “secret collaborator” in the Czechoslovak communist special service registers – was realist enough to reject this practically doomed undertaking.
Immediately before the elections, I spoke with Babiš’s opponents in the Czech Republic in Prague and Pardubice. They claimed that behind the scenes in Prague there was talk of a possible “grand coalition” involving the SPOLU bloc, whose main shareholders are the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and the current ruling ANO – all without Babiš, who was guaranteed the office of president at the end of Zeman’s term.
Many considered this scenario to be very likely and a typical expression of Czech pragmatism.
Nevertheless, on election night, shortly after the results were announced, the opposition parties split into two blocs: SPOLU, whose coalition partners include the Law and Justice (PiS) allied ODS (the party belongs to the same group in the European Parliament as the Polish PiS; both are members of the European Conservatives and Reformists), the Christian Democrats and the liberal-conservative TOP 09.
The other bloc was made up of the Pirate Party and independent local government officials. These blocs unanimously announced that there will be no coalition with Babiš’s ANO.
This means that the new Czech Prime Minister will be a conservative of the ODS and not a liberal. This also means that the new prime minister will most likely be Petr Fiala – and not Andrej Babiš.
Fiala has been at the head of Vaclav Klaus’ former party for the past seven years after Petr Nečas, the first Catholic prime minister in the history of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, resigned from office (Nečas, father of four, had an affair with one of his colleagues).
Fiala managed to double the support of the ODS, although the Czech sister party of the PiS was given little chance in the elections a year ago with a poll result of 12 percent.
Fiala is known for his pro-Polish stance and could usher in a “new opening” in relations between Warsaw and Prague. He could also continue the policies of his predecessor Petr Nečas, who stressed that Central European countries should not allow themselves to be manipulated by their neighbors.
Source: DoRzeczy.pl / Rmx.news