Low preference, high annoyance. The people are dissatisfied | iRADIO

Lidovce expects a convention in October only after the European, regional and senate elections. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the year, due to internal tension, his earlier recall was also in play. This call was made from cells in České Budějovice, Pilsen, the Moravian-Silesian or Liberec regions.

At the end of January, however, the national conference of the KDU-ČSL decided to support the chairman Mariano Jurečka in office until the October congress. He received 46 votes out of 84.

However, he himself pledged that if the party fails to reverse the trend of declining preferences and does not have good election results, he will not run again in the fall. Specifically, he wants to keep two MEP mandates, one governor and strengthen the Senate.

While maintaining positions should not be such a problem, also thanks to the fact that the People’s Party can use a joint candidacy within the Spolu coalition, with the rising tendency of preferences for a separate KDU-ČSL, it will be more difficult for Jureček.

“The long-term development of KDU-ČSL shows that they will have a big problem in exceeding five percent of support on their own. To a large extent, the internal conservatism of the party prevents this,” the director of the Median agency Přemysl Čech described to the website iROZHLAS.cz and Radiožurnál.

Since the last parliamentary elections, the support of the People’s Party has gradually fallen to historic lows and is now stagnant in the range of two to four percent support. The party already changed its PR manager last summer, but there was no significant change.

People’s support has potential at the level of ten percent, but the core of voters has gradually decreased to a value of 1.5 percent. If they did not have the Spolu coalition, they would be in a similar situation to the extra-parliamentary communists or SOCDEM, as Median data shows.

“The side is trying but making unforced errors, see visual career vs. family care. Acceptance is then very negative, because many voters do not like the party,” pointed out political scientist and expert in political marketing from Masaryk University Otto Eibl. The mentioned People’s graphic from the beginning of March was withdrawn by the party after criticism behind the network.

Political scientist Vít Hloušek described the People’s policy towards women as “communication madness”. The fact that he speaks in a disjointed voice is also to blame. “Sometimes a conservative MP like Nina Nováková will speak on these topics, and sometimes Marie Jílková, who seems to belong to a completely different and far less traditionalist party,” he described.

However, there is no prevailing opinion in the party that only Chairman Jureček is solely to blame for the current unhappy state. After all, his engagement at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is also praised by many of his internal party rivals.

Even so, Jurečka is openly criticized by a large number of mainly older and influential members – often his former internal party allies.

Party as the last straw

Lidovci agree that Jurečko’s pre-Christmas party at the ministry on the day of the shooting at the philosophy faculty and the subsequent clumsy explanation was just the culmination of long-term frustration. “It’s not just about the party, but also about the fact that the party has been declining in preferences for a long time. Everyone can see that,” former party chairman Jiří Čunek mentioned, for example.

Another ex-leader of the People’s Party, Pavel Bělobrádek, also wrote to fellow party members that change must occur not only because of this affair, but also because of the party’s long-term bad results. “The party was the last straw, which is related to the long-term situation of the party and what our long-term preferences are. The long-term trend is not good and the entire presidency bears responsibility,” he described. He himself declares that he is willing to help the management “in any position”.

“The current leadership is incapable of changing things. It would help if there was a complete change and the new people in the presidency would not be burdened by the past,” says Cyril Svoboda. KDU-ČSL itself even led twice. First in the years 2001–2003, the second time in the years 2009–2010. “A cosmetic change, such as the replacement of Marian Jurečka at the post of party chairman, will not solve anything. I recommend a complete change of the entire leadership,” he wrote in a letter directed to the inside of the party.

“I really appreciate what Marian Jurečka does for her work at the ministry. But the whole case casts a bad light on the party,” said Jaromír Talíř, a former minister of culture and a member of the KDU-ČSL from České Budějovice.

‘Bad Ministries’

The current leadership is also under fire from the security-foreign wing of the KDU-ČSL. Deputy Speaker of the House Jan Bartošek, head of the House Committee on European Affairs Ondřej Benešík and MEP Tomáš Zdechovské are annoyed that the party focuses too little on their issues, where they see an opportunity to score political points, and too much on unpopular social savings.

He also speaks publicly about the fact that the People’s Party negotiated disadvantageous ministries after the elections. However, the ministries of labor and social affairs, the environment and agriculture were a priority for Chairman Jurečka.

“We have floundering ministries where we take necessary but unpopular steps, and we don’t have any ministries that are attractive to voters, such as defense or foreign affairs,” said Benešík.

“The problem arose already when the ministers were being chosen. And in a way that I still don’t understand. Senator Anna Hubáčková and Zdeněk Nekula from Znojemsk got married, and people with political responsibility and experience did not get married. And that goes to the party chairman. You cannot pull people like rabbits out of a hat,” described Zdechovský.

Political scientist Hloušek also agrees with this view. “At those three resorts, they fail to sell their ‘humanity’. They are a bit of a victim of circumstance. When you have a Ministry of Labor, you are trying to reform pensions, and at the same time you are dealing with the need to heal public finances, it necessarily conflicts with what you promise as a people. Words about pro-family politics are nice, but everyone associates Jurečka with unpopular pension changes,” he described for iROZHLAS.cz.

There is also a widespread feeling in the party that people’s anger due to unpopular austerity measures and reforms falls mainly on the KDU-ČSL in the government. “We have lost credibility as the social conscience of the government,” says Bělobárdek.

Jurečka already responded to this a few weeks ago by saying that he wants to turn everything around and start promoting people’s priorities much more forcefully.

Election test

The cohesion of the coalition will be tested together by the People’s Party, ODS and TOP 09 in the June elections to the European Parliament. Although it cost a lot of concessions, negotiations and cuts, the joint candidate seems to be ready.

The KDU-ČSL paid for it by deleting the independent senator Pavel Fischer and deputy Hayat Okamura, the first of whom was originally supposed to be the People’s Five, the second on the tail of the joint candidate. Neither of them is participating in the European elections due to the threat of circling and then jumping from the depths of the candidate list.

In the top ten, the People’s Party includes the current MEPs Tomáš Zdechovský and Michaela Šojdrová, as well as the deputy governor of the South Bohemian Region, František Talíř.

Jakub Grim

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