The leaders of the political parties decide on the candidate for the European Parliament. The Spolu coalition is considering re-candidating Spolu. However, while the Spolu candidate for the Chamber of Deputies was logical within the anti-Babiš coalition and the Spolu parties together with the Pirates and STAN automatically continued in the government after the elections, in the case of elections to the European Parliament, the candidates and parties immediately split into completely different Brussels factions. And that’s why the common candidate has no logic.
How can Alexandr Vondra for ODS and Luděk Niedermayer for TOP09 be on the same candidate list, when for five whole years they have been publishing completely but completely diametrically opposed views on European politics? On the green transformation, on illegal migration, on all fundamental matters of European politics.
I understand that for the leaders of the ODS government, the European candidate Spolu would be another cementing element to maintain the unity of the government. With falling preferences and declining government popularity, sooner or later one of the governing parties will want to become independent. Even in the European Parliament, two or four mutually blocking Czech MPs would not be distinguishable among the other seven hundred. There is no problem there.
The problem is domestic politics, voters, but also members of the ODS, who would not understand such a candidate and would be confused. Do we in Spolu vote for criticism of the Green Deal and criticism of the ban on cars with internal combustion engines, or do we vote for an ultra-green transformation damaging Czech industry and competitiveness? You cannot choose both. Therefore, the ODS, TOP09 and KDUČSL candidate for the European Parliament does not make sense and will only have voters. ODS voters. And as a result, it may become another internal problem of the political integrity of the ODS. Howgh.
The author is a senator, a member of the ODS since 1993, i.e. 30 years!
