“Together†forever? What next for electoral alliances?
The Together alliance of three centre-right parties would receive 28.5 percent of the vote in general elections, suggests a poll released on Sunday. Behind them would be the Pirates and Mayors, who also contested elections last year together. Forming the two alliances helped the five parties enter government – but does it make sense for them to continue indefinitely? I spoke to political scientist Petr Just.
“I think their decision to run together as alliances, as pre-electoral coalitions, was very much pragmatic – in order to avoid any split in the vote against Andrej Babiš.
“I think it’s very likely that any kind of alliance will be used in further elections as well.
“I say ‘any kind’ of alliance, because right now we probably can’t be sure that it will be the same alliances.
“Maybe the parties in the Together alliance are more likely to continue on this platform, because they are not only connected pragmatically – they are also more connected programmatically and ideologically.
“While the other alliance, the Mayors and Pirates, are let’s say more pragmatic than programmatic partners.
“So there I see the potential in future that they might choose a different partner, or maybe they can somehow remodify their cooperation.
“Maybe they could add some other party to the alliance.”
For these parties who ran together in these alliances, what are the advantages, or the dangers, of continuing to stay together?
“For the Civic Democrats, the advantage of this alliance is that they – despite being a strong party – are not as strong as their nearest challenger, the ANO party of Andrej Babiš.
“So for the Civic Democrats this partnership brings them extra votes, extra percentages, which brings them closer to ANO.
“For the two junior, smaller parties – the Christian Democrats and TOP 09 – being partners of the Civic Democrats keeps them as relevant actors in the Czech party system. Read More...
