The leaders of the Civic Democrats (ODS), TOP 09 and the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) today signed a coalition agreement for the autumn parliamentary elections; their Spolu (‘Together’) coalition has seven basic programme pillars for the election campaign.
The coalition’s contact campaign starts today, with the first stage to end in April. They also unveiled a simplified logo and a new visual style today, in which blue has been replaced by bold green, apricot and white.
“The Mayors and Independents (STAN) remain a natural partner and I believe that a new government can be formed on this basis,” said ODS leader Petr Fiala, adding that he is also open to debate with the Pirates.
Responding to a question from journalists, Prime Minister Fiala said he rules out post-election cooperation with the opposition ANO movement of Andrej Babis, as before the 2017 and 2021 elections. He said ANO is an irresponsible populist movement.
TOP 09 leader Marketa Pekarova Adamova and KDU-CSL’s Marek Vyborny also criticised Babis.
Opinion polls suggest that ANO is the favourite to win the September elections.
Fiala has been saying that the end of the campaign will be important, and that he wants Spolu to win 30% of the vote.
ODS will cover 55% of the financing of Spolu’s election campaign, while KDU-CSL and TOP 09 will each contribute 22.5%. Under the coalition pact, the campaign spending would not exceed the upper limit set by law at CZK 90 million.
Among the programme pillars of the coalition, the first priority is a secure state as a basis for the development of other areas, said Fiala.
The coalition also promises voters affordable housing and construction support, economic growth and prosperity, modern education, a functioning and efficient state, rural development and sustainable agriculture, and a health care system with good data interconnection.
In 2021, Spolu narrowly won the parliamentary elections ahead of ANO, before forming a coalition government with the Mayors and Independents and the Pirates. However, the Pirates left the government last autumn.
Elsewhere, Tomio Okamura’s far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) announced plans over the weekend to run on a joint list with three small right-wing populist parties: the Freedom Party (Svobodni), Trikolora, and PRO. The four parties plan to form a joint group in the lower house.
SPD won 9.56% of the vote and 20 seats in the last parliamentary elections in 2021. Okamura has since spoken of the need to unite with smaller parties, as in the 2021 elections over one million votes went to parties that did not exceed the 5% threshold, including several far-right parties.
A party running alone must win at least 5% of the vote to enter the Chamber of Deputies, a two-party coalition must win 8% of the vote, and a coalition of more than two parties must win at least 11%.
