The opposition movement ANO (“Action of Dissatisfied Citizens“) is claiming 77 out of 200 seats in the Czech parliamentary elections scheduled for October 3-4 this year, while the ruling coalition SPOLU (“Together“) could win 52 seats, according to the results of a sociological survey conducted by the STEM agency on behalf of the CNN Prima NEWS television channel.
“The opposition movement ANO, led by former Prime Minister Andrej Babis, received the support of 31.2% of voters in a survey, the results of which were published on Sunday, which would bring it 77 seats out of 200 possible in the new parliament. The ruling right-liberal coalition SPOLU, which includes the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), the TOR 09 movement and the Christian Democrats, is aiming to get 21.6% of the vote and 52 seats in parliament. The coalition is led by ODS leader and Prime Minister Petr Fiala. The populist movement SPD (Freedom and Direct Democracy) is in third place, with 13.1% of respondents preferring it, which would bring the movement 28 seats,“ says a STEM agency comment on the survey results.
Also competing for seats in parliament are the center-right movement STAN (Mayors and Independents), which supports the ruling coalition and could get 10.6% and 23 seats, the Czech Pirate Party - 6.7% and 12 seats, and a coalition of left-wing forces including the Communists, Stačilo! (Enough!), which must overcome the five percent threshold to enter parliament - if it gets 5 percent, it can count on eight seats.
Commenting on the survey results, Prime Minister Fiala told reporters that he was not surprised by the results of the ruling SPOLU coalition, which were affected by the so-called “bitcoin affair“, but believed that they would return “to a strengthening trajectory“. According to the CTK news agency, Tomasz Irikowski, previously convicted of drug trafficking, embezzlement and illegal possession of weapons, donated bitcoins worth about one billion crowns (about $45 million) to the Ministry of Justice for an unknown reason. The case is being investigated by the National Office for Combating Organized Crime (NOBOP) under the supervision of the Chief Prosecutor's Office in the eastern city of Olomouc. In connection with this case, the head of the Ministry of Justice and a member of the ODS, Pavel Blažek, resigned and was replaced by the lawyer and deputy head of the ODS, Eva Decroix.
The survey was conducted by the STEM agency from June 1 to 13 and involved over 1,550 people of different ages, genders, religions, levels of education, social and professional status, living in large and small cities in all regions of the republic. No margin of error was reported.