At the end of September 2024, the Senate elections will take place in two rounds based on a majoritarian system rather than a party list system. However, a candidate’s affiliation with a particular political party provides insight into their political principles and orientation. It is crucial to distinguish between a genuine politician and a cheap populist who exploits societal emotions and protest sentiments. It is even worse when politicians are covert agents of foreign powers, usually authoritarian ones, that do not share the principles of democracy, a free society, and human rights. These politicians form political parties with the intention of usurping power for the benefit of foreign powers, but they accomplish this goal through democratic methods. Regrettably, these parties, by exploiting the emotions of their fellow citizens and making unfulfilled promises, manage to garner a stable electorate and pose a significant threat to patriotic political forces. Such parties are opposed by other parties and their alliances, which are leading their country towards integration with EU countries and democratic reforms. This aligns with the principle of solidarity with democratic nations, especially those that have faced unprovoked aggression.
Czech political parties associated with the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) and the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) have formed a joint list of candidates for the 2024 European elections to counter populists and increase the parties’ chances of winning by surpassing the green and leftist forces in the European Parliament. Petr Fiala, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and chairman of the ODS party (ECR), subsequently proclaimed an alliance with his colleagues from the governing coalition TOP 09 and KDU-ČSL, both of which are members of the EPP.
“The upcoming European elections will be a battle between those who see Europe as an opportunity for cooperation on one side and those who merely use it as a cheap target for their political attacks or as an easy source of funds on the other,” Fiala stated while announcing the alliance. The Czech Republic already had experience in creating a similar alliance to combat populism in 2021, when the coalition consisting of ODS, TOP-09, and KDU-ČSL managed to defeat the populist party ANO led by former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. “After the experience we had with populists, we know that an unpleasant period awaits us (considering the European elections): it will be a time of lies, deceit, and division in society.” We want to solve this problem. “We are aware of the danger and have decided to overcome the disagreements,” Fiala explained.
While ODS, associated with ECR, is a conservative party with Eurosceptic views, TOP 09, linked to EPP, is a pro-European and liberal-conservative party. The Christian Democratic Party KDU-ČSL, associated with the EPP, represents traditionally conservative voters, especially in rural areas, and is considered more pro-European than the ODS.
Given that the Czech Republic will hold Senate elections in late September 2024 and parliamentary elections in 2025, their combined performance in the European elections of 2024 was also crucial. And considering that the centre-right coalition will suffer defeat at the hands of populists in the European elections, this could trigger a chain reaction and worsen its prospects in the aforementioned national elections.
In fact, such an alliance and cooperation between centre-right and right-wing parties is a way to prevent populists from coming to power. “In Slovakia, the fragmented pro-European political camp failed to prevent the return to power of another populist disguised as a socialist, Robert Fico,” according to a representative of the EPP. Members of the Czech coalition parties continued to discuss deeper cooperation between the ECR and PPE even after the elections. Petr Fiala also confirmed this aspect, emphasising his expectation of deeper cooperation between the EPP and the ECR.
“We are entering the ECR group; we have become co-founders of this group and maintain close ties with it.” One of the characteristics of this conservative faction is our desire to remain united, whereas our adversaries are a variety of populists, including national populists. “Therefore, it is much more natural for us to cooperate with the EPP,” Fiala added.
Before the establishment of the ECR in 2009, ODS was a member of the European Democrats, who formed a political group with the EPP, and Fiala himself has a good relationship with the current EPP leader.
However, despite such a unifying step, the trend towards populism and a rightward shift in the political views of citizens in Europe, and the Czech Republic in particular, has led to the success of the populists and the far-right, with few exceptions. Unfortunately, the EU population is not fully aware that it is the Kremlin who sponsors most of these parties and the politicians who represent them.
The political corruption method, which involves the transfer of funds from European countries to a terrorist state (Russia) for energy supplies, partially returns to the EU to establish “Putin’s matryoshkas”—parties whose leaders actively monetise the interests of their constituents while following Moscow’s lead.
The self-appointed Russian president, who has been in power in the Kremlin for almost a quarter of a century as a former officer of the KGB-FSB, has actively exploited the democratic principles of building the “collective West” and its societies to promote his imperial ideas, buying off European politicians and exploiting “useful idiots.” This typically occurs at the start of a political career for young, active, and promising individuals who are actively seeking funding for their movement despite having not yet gained weight. Over time, they become dependent on the sponsor and their funding, which has been further simplified by the development of cryptocurrency. The process swiftly degenerates, compelling them to conform to its incessantly growing “desires.” Over time, the addiction escalates to such a degree that it fundamentally alters the political trajectory of the parties. In fact, they become poorly disguised public agents for the Kremlin, lobbying for its interests in both national and European parliaments. And in the event that the curators manage to bring such political forces into the executive power, a golden rain pours down from the opened clouds of various accounts of Russian state companies for this “European” Kremlin power, just as a golden rain of titles, awards, orders, and privileges falls upon their curators. In the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Intelligence Service (formerly the 1st Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR—FSB of the Russian Federation), they opened champagne to celebrate the successful completion of the “preparatory period.” And then, like in a fairy tale, the further you go, the scarier it gets, for everything has a price, and Moscow collects its debts through concessions of national interests or by fulfilling political orders, poorly disguised as “pluralism of opinions” and “freedom of speech.” Meanwhile, the deceived citizens, who believed in and voted for populists just yesterday, do not quite understand why their daily lives are starting to unfold in the opposite direction of the promises made.
