ANO 2011

ANO 2011
Party leader	Andrej Babiš
founding	2011 (citizens' initiative), 2012 (party)
Headquarters	Prague
Alignment	Populism catch-all party conservative - liberal
Colours)	blue
Seats in the House of Representatives	78/200
Senate mandates	6/81
MEPs	6/21
European party	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE)
EP Group	Renew Europe (RE)
Website	www.anobudelip.cz

The political movement ANO 2011 ( Czech Politické hnutí ANO 2011 ; short form ANO , “ano” means “yes” in Czech, at the same time it stands for akce nespokojených občanů , “action of dissatisfied citizens”) is a political party in the Czech Republic to the chemical and Media entrepreneur Andrej Babiš . The ideology of the movement is considered indefinite, it is often described as populist . In the election campaign she positioned herself against the established political elite and against corruption. From 2013 to 2017 she was a junior partner in a coalition government, and since December 2017 she has led the government with Babiš as Prime Minister.

history

Foundation and early phase (2011-2013)

The forerunner of the party was the citizens' initiative Akce nespokojených občanů ('Action for Dissatisfied Citizens'), founded in 2011 . In May 2012 it was registered as a political movement under the name ANO 2011 . The Czech word ano means “yes” in German. Her slogan is Ano, bude líp. ("Yes, it will get better.")

The chairman behind the movement is the Czech entrepreneur and billionaire Andrej Babiš, who has been involved in the largest Czech newspaper Mladá fronta Dnes , Lidové noviny , the free newspaper Metro , Internet portals, private TV channels and printing companies since 2013 . The sale was approved in August and approved by the Czech Cartel Office shortly before the parliamentary elections in October 2013 . In this election, the former EU Commissioner Pavel Telička and the former Czech Minister of Culture Martin Stropnický competed for ANO . Andrej Babiš and his party were supported by the US PR agency Penn Schoen Berland (PSB) , which worked for Bill and Hillary Clinton , among others .

Promotion and Junior Partner in Government (2013-2017)

In the early parliamentary elections in 2013 , ANO immediately became the second strongest force in parliament with 18.65 percent and signed a coalition agreement with the Social Democrats ( ČSSD ) and Christian Democrats ( KDU-ČSL ) on January 6, 2014 , according to which the ANO had six members in the cabinet from Bohuslav Sobotka (ČSSD). In the European elections in 2014 , ANO became the strongest force in the Czech Republic with 16.1 percent in 2011 and moved into the European Parliament with four members . In the 2014 local elections, ANO achieved a national average of 14.6 percent. In Prague, ANO was the strongest force with 22.1 percent and then provided the mayoress Adriana Krnáčová until 2018 . The party has been a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) since November 2014 . In the regional elections in the Czech Republic in 2016 , she received the most votes of all parties with 21%.

Babiš government (since 2017)

In the House of Representatives election in October 2017 , ANO was the strongest party with 29.6% of the vote and a large margin over the other parties. However, the formation of a government turned out to be difficult: with the exception of the right-wing populist and EU-skeptical Svoboda a přímá demokracie (SPD), all other parties rejected a coalition under Babiš, who at the time was suspected of improper use of EU funds for a leisure area and was accused of spying for the communist secret service before 1989. In turn, ANO did not want to form a coalition with the SPD. In parliament, ANO temporarily cooperated with the SPD and the Communist Party to fill committee positions. In December 2017, Babiš was appointed Prime Minister of a minority government made up of only ANO members and non-party ministers. After renewed negotiations, ANO formed a coalition with the social democratic ČSSD in June 2018 , which also enjoys the support of the communists in parliament.

Political assessment

The political scientist Ladislav Cabada from the private Metropolitan University of Prague described ANO as an “actor beyond the classic left-right scale”, who consciously sees itself as a movement and has recently had to revise the election manifesto several times. It is also unclear how independent of the founder Babiš the more than 40 MPs are. All of this reminds me “a bit of Beppe Grillo in Italy”. The Czech journalist Jakub Patočko, on the other hand, sees parallels with Silvio Berlusconi's party :

“Babiš's political project can best be compared in European politics with that of Berlusconi's Forza Italia . The ANO is an ideologically unrestricted, broad political movement of a primitive oligarch who distinguishes itself from the previous political elite. Babiš also associates Berlusconi with the fact that they are both powerful media magnates. "

Like Berlusconi's Forza Italia, ANO is characterized as an entrepreneurial or “corporate party”. As a symbol of Babiš's leadership style in his party, the quote "I pay, so I decide" can be cited, which he is said to have uttered according to former party member Hana Greplová. Shortly after founding ANO, Babiš compared the Czech Republic to a "company with ten million shareholders". In the 2013 election campaign, the party put up the slogan “Yes, the state must be governed like a company”.

Karl-Peter Schwarz, correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) also wrote that the ANO was like “a sparkling clean, empty vessel that is ready for all kinds of content”. This partly explains their success with voters, but at the same time makes them difficult to predict for possible political partnerships. The foreign correspondent for the daily newspaper (taz), Alexandra Mostyn, however, remarked that Babiš was “in contrast to representatives of the established parties [...] as incorruptible because of his billion dollar fortune. And that's all that many voters are asking of their politicians today. "

The German Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the Austrian newspaper Der Standard described the ANO in 2016 as "liberal populist". The Czech political scientists Jan Bíba and Radek Buben speak of “entrepreneurial populism”.

Political scientist Vít Hloušek attributes the membership of the ANO to the liberal party alliance ALDE to tactical considerations that ANO is not a real liberal party. It offers a rather mixed, populist program that has certain liberal elements, but also influences from other ideologies and topics and is far removed from the mainstream of European liberals.

The political scientist Vlastimil Havlík sees a possible danger for free democracy in the autocratic structure of the party, the concentration of economic, political and media power in the person of Babiš as well as his political understanding of wanting to run the state like a company, with an unrestricted decision-maker ( according to the owner of the company) and loyal subordinates, without the barriers of institutional procedures and minority rights. Since ANO has so far been dependent on coalition partners, it has not (yet) been able to implement appropriate anti-democratic measures.

program

In its program , the movement advocates, among other things, the following:

• improved working conditions for university graduates, people over 50 and the disabled
• no taxes should be increased and the value added tax should also be reduced
• Taxes should be collected consistently
• simple and stable rule for companies and investors
• the immunity of deputies and senators in parliament is to be abolished
• The asset management of politicians and officials should be disclosed and subjected to independent control
• The gambling should be limited
• the education system should be better promoted and the financial resources for research and science should be doubled

Election results

year	choice	Share of the vote	Parliament seats	space	position
2013	House election 2013	18.65%	47/200	2.	Government participation
2014	European elections 2014	16.13%	4/16	1.	-
2016	Regional elections 2016	21.05%	176/671	1.	-
2017	House election 2017	29.64%	78/200	1.	Minority government
2019	European elections 2019	21.18%	6/21	1.	-

See also

• List of political parties in the Czech Republic
• Political system of the Czech Republic

literature

• Lubomír Kopeček: “I'm Paying, So I Decide”. Czech ANO as an Extreme Form of a Business-Firm Party. In: East European Politics and Societies , Volume 30 (2016), No. 4, pp. 725–749.
• Jakub Patočka: »Entrepreneur Populism«. The rise of Andrej Babiš in the Czech Republic . In: Ernst Hillebrand (Ed.): Right-wing populism in Europe. Danger to democracy? Dietz, Bonn 2015, ISBN 978-3-8012-0467-9 , p. 88 ff.

Web links

• Website ANO 2011 (Czech)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Caroline Close: The liberal family ideology. Distinct, but diverse. In: Emilie van Haute, Caroline Close: Liberal Parties in Europe. Routledge, Abingdon (Oxon) / New York 2019, pp. 326-347, at p. 344.
2. ↑ Perseus politických stran a hnutí: History hnutí ANO 2011 . Website of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic.
3. ↑ rejstrik-firem.kurzy.cz register entry of the movement
4. ↑ ^{a b} Till Janzer: “The situation is complicated” - political scientist Ladislav Cabada on the election result . Interview with Radio Praha on October 26, 2013.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Karl-Peter Schwarz: After the election could be before the election. In: FAZ.net . October 27, 2013, accessed September 8, 2015 . 
6. ^ Ulrich Krökel: The Czechs stink politics. In: Zeit Online , October 24, 2013.
7. ↑ Martin Nejezchleba: Enterprise State - In Profile: ANO. In: Prager Zeitung , October 24, 2013.
8. ↑ Petr Senk: Political earthquake in parliamentary elections. In: Wiener Zeitung , October 26, 2013.
9. ↑ Stefan Heinlein: A billionaire as a messiah. ( Memento from October 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Broadcast heads of Europe , Deutschlandfunk, October 28, 2013.
10. ↑ Adam Pešek: Is the Czech Republic facing Berlusconization? EJO - European Journalism Observatory, September 5, 2013.
11. ↑ Rheinische Post Mediengruppe sells activities in the Czech Republic. Press release from the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe , June 26, 2013
12. ↑ Agrofert has officially taken over the Mafra publishing house. Prague News, October 10, 2013.
13. ^ Bernhard Odehnal: Czech Berlusconi is pushing for power. ( Memento of December 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Der Bund , October 20, 2013, p. 4. (Accessed December 3, 2013.)
14. ^ Coalition agreement signed in the Czech Republic. In: derstandard.at , January 6, 2014.
15. ^ Three parties in the Czech Republic sign a coalition government. ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Zeit Online , January 6, 2014.
16. ↑ ALDE Party welcomese new member parties ( Memento from November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
17. ^ Gerald Schubert: Czech Republic after Babiš victory before difficult government formation. In: derStandard.at , October 22, 2017.
18. ↑ Gerald Schubert: Defectors could enable minority government in the Czech Republic. In: derStandard.at , October 29, 2017.
19. ↑ Alexandra Mostyn: Government formation in the Czech Republic - Prague post haggling. In: Taz , November 21, 2017.
20. ↑ Peter Lange: Babis at the goal - but without a majority. Tagesschau.de, December 6, 2017.
21. ↑ Czech Republic: Babis introduces his new government. In: Kurier.at , December 13, 2017.
22. ^ Lothar Martin: The Czech Republic has a new government - the second under Prime Minister Babiš. In: Radio Praha in German, June 27, 2018.
23. ^ Patočka: Entrepreneur populism in the Czech Republic. P. 88 f.
24. ↑ Lubomír Kopeček: “I'm Paying, So I Decide”. Czech ANO as an Extreme Form of a Business-Firm Party. In: East European Politics and Societies , Volume 30 (2016), No. 4, pp. 725–749.
25. ↑ Original quote: "Základní heslo Babiše bylo: Já platím, já rozhoduji". Petr Koděra: Exmístopředsedkyně ANO 2011: Ani bohatí nezabrání krádežím v politice, Babiš má dvojí tvář. In: Hospodářské Noviny. August 27, 2013. Quoted in: Lubomír Kopeček: “I'm Paying, So I Decide”. Czech ANO as an Extreme Form of a Business-Firm Party. In: East European Politics and Societies , Volume 30 (2016), No. 4, pp. 725–749.
26. ↑ Original quote: "Česká republika je firma, která má deset milionů akcionářů". Stát se musí řídit jako firma, tvrdí miliardář Babiš. In: Aktuálně.cz , October 27, 2012. Quoted in: Lubomír Kopeček: “I'm Paying, So I Decide”. Czech ANO as an Extreme Form of a Business-Firm Party. In: East European Politics and Societies , Volume 30 (2016), No. 4, pp. 725–749.
27. ↑ Adéla Gjuričová: Letting Go Czechoslovakia. Czech Political Developments Since 1993. In: M. Mark Stolarik: The Czech and Slovak Republics. Twenty Years of Independence, 1993-2013. Central European University Press, Budapest / New York 2016, pp. 143–154, at p. 153.
28. ↑ Alexandra Mostyn: Corruption in the Czech Republic: “There is no such thing as dirty money”. In: taz.de . October 28, 2013, accessed September 8, 2015 . 
29. ^ Matthias Barner, Alena Resl: Dress rehearsal one year before the parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic. In: kas.de, October 12, 2016, accessed December 10, 2016, 6:22 p.m.
30. ^ Profits for the liberal populist party Ano in the Czech Republic . In: derstandard.at, October 8, 2016, accessed October 9, 2016, 8:16 pm.
31. ^ Patočka: Entrepreneur populism in the Czech Republic. P. 88.
32. ^ Vít Hloušek: Liberalism in the Czech lands. Between nationalism and party marginality. In: Marcin Moskalewicz, Wojciech Przybylski: Understanding Central Europe. Routledge, Abingdon (Oxon) / New York, 2018, pp. 257–265, on p. 265.
33. ^ Vlastimil Havlík: Populism as a threat to liberal democracy in East Central Europe. In: Jan Holzer, Miroslav Mareš: Challenges to Democracies in East Central Europe. Routledge, Abingdon (Oxon) / New York 2016, pp. 36–55, at pp. 50–51.
34. ↑ Volby do Poslanecké sněmovny Parlamentu České republiky konané ve dnech 20.10. - 21.10.2017 , information from the Czech Statistical Office ČSÚ, online at: volby.cz/pls/