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The Civic Democratic Party made another foray into becoming a catch-all party last week. That is, to capture all voters, no matter what they think about Babiš or Putin, for example.
A well-known risk of the political science catch-all concept is that the person trying to achieve it can appear somewhat inconsistent or downright confused. It’s like he wants everyone – but that means he doesn’t know what he really wants. That’s what happened this time too.
First, the ODS marketing kitchen enjoyed the campaign of the ANO movement. She squatted on the unprotected domain ceskoprotebevsecko.cz, painted a Czech Russian flag on it instead of Babiš, and ended the creative orgy with the slogan “Russia, everything for you” with a gulp “Vote for Europe together, you won’t be in danger of Russia there” (where is that, in Europe? ).
Petr Fiala reveled: “If I have information from our election team, ANO made the incredible mistake of not registering the domain with the key campaign password. I think my colleagues point this out quite well.” This deserves clarification: the mentioned visual certainly does not point out that someone has not registered a domain. They claim that ANO is a pro-Russian party.
Catch-all attempt number two goes to Jan Zahradil, who let it be known that ODS should go into a coalition with ANO after the 2025 elections, “because it would be a stable government with a strong majority”. The serving long-time European number one ODS, with the mask of a rebel put on exactly for such cases, forges catch-all iron while it is hot. Babiš is pro-Russian evil? Call us! Do you want us to join the government with Babis? Call us!
Minister of Justice Pavel Blažek rounded off a strong week for the ODS. On the X network, he commented admiringly on the level of Sunday’s interview (“dialogue”, writes Blažek) of Václav Klaus with CNN Prima News presenter Terezia Tománková. According to Blažek, the viewer could hear “… a politician who, unlike many of us, speaks in comprehensible language about essential matters. Not about the pseudo-problems that most Prague newsrooms and social networks are constantly bombarding us with.”
A few hours later, he elaborated by saying: “For all those who blame me for this from the position of “democrats” and equate me with the views of Václav Klaus, for example, on the Russian invasion of Ukraine: there is and should be nothing wrong with noticing the clarity argumentation even with someone who is not a supporter of the government or ODS and even has opposing views in many directions. If our opinions are to prevail, we must be even more convincing, more understandable and talk about essential things. There is little flaring on the nets.’
Some analysts see this as Blažk’s attempt to save the situation, while others see it as an effort to screw up the whole matter even more. In any case, Pavel Blažek normally does not comment on performances in televised debates every Sunday. So why did he need to confide in the fact that he was impressed by the clarity of the former honorary chairman? That’s why: Babiš is pro-Russian evil? Call us! Do you like Václav Klaus 2024? Call us a lot more! Catch-all.
By the way, Pavel Blažek already has a yellow card from the prime minister. For a stormy party with Martin Nejedlý. But only with him will the ODS catch-all project be complete.
