Andrej Babis is leader of the parliamentary opposition in the Czech Republic. Come the fall, however, the billionaire and head of the Action of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) party hopes to be prime minister once again.
And there’s a good chance he will be. According to an Ipsos opinion poll from early February, 36.7% of Czech voters intend to vote for his party.
Only 20.5% plan to back the three-party, center-right alliance Spolu (Together) led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala, which has ruled the country with two other parties since 2021.
Should Babis win the election, it is unlikely he will have a coalition partner that would act as a corrective — like the pro-European Social Democrats did during his first premiership from 2017 to 2021.
Polls suggest that Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (pictured here after his election victory in 2021) will not win this fall’s electionImage: Darko Bandic/AP Photo/picture alliance ANO has become more radical over the past year, moving further and further to the right. In the European Parliament, it has switched from the liberal Renew Europe group to the far-right Patriots for Europe, which is headed by the French far-right National Rally.
Looking to neighbors Hungary and Slovakia Babis makes no secret of his closeness to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Both politicians are seen as controversial within the EU, not least because of their ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Their authoritarian style of leadership is also viewed with concern in Brussels.
In one area in particular, Babis wants to follow the example set by Fico and Orban: He wants to overhaul public media in the Czech Republic.
While at least part of the ruling pro-European coalition in Prague is trying to strengthen the independence of the country’s public media, Babis wants to do the exact opposite. His aim is to move away from the license fee model and merge Czech Radio and Czech Television into one organization that would be directly funded from the state budget.
Push to increase TV and radio licenses For months now, ANO and the right-wing populist Euroskeptic Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy party (SPD) have been blocking the proposed increase in the monthly TV and radio license fees proposed by the government.
People in neighboring Slovakia protested the overhaul of public media there in 2024Image: Jaroslav Novák/dpa/TASR/picture alliance The proposal is to moderately increase the monthly fees, which have remained unchanged since 2008, from 135 to 155 Czech crowns (an increase of €0.80 or $0.84) for television and from 45 auf 55 Czech crowns for radio.
Babis, on the other hand, has promised to do away with the license fees altogether if re-elected.
“The main reason for our proposal is economic in nature,” he told parliament at the end of January. “The aim is that citizens should no longer pay for untransparent institutions that are being misused for the benefit of this government and five-party coalition.”
Following in Fico’s footsteps Babis makes no bones of the fact that he wants to implement the same model as the one adopted in neighboring Slovakia by his counterpart Robert Fico.
There, Robert Fico’s government brought public radio and television under its political control by linking its funding directly to the state budget.
Ivana Sulakova, head of the Czech Syndicate of Journalists, has described ANO’s plans as unacceptable.
“The transformation of public media by means of their nationalization and financing them from the state budget is, in our view, unacceptable. Because it means a direct dependence on the political will of the highest political establishment,” Sulakova told DW.
Ivana Sulakova, head of the Czech Syndicate of Journalists, says Babis’ plans for public media in the Czech Republic are unacceptableImage: Archiv Ivana Šuláková “What is happening in Slovakia is alarming and clear evidence of the fact that if there is no public media, the people cannot be sure of getting all relevant information — regardless of who currently holds the reigns of political power,” she said.
Like many other journalists and media experts in the Czech Republic, Sulakova is also critical of the current government under Petr Fiala. She says that they have done too little to strengthen the position of public media and to protect them from attempts by politicians like Babis and Fico to bring them under government control.
“I do not have the feeling that the current government has strengthened the position of public media in society,” said Sulakova. “It was also not capable of explaining to the people what the license fees are used for and what they guarantee the public.”
Attempts to strengthen public media Senator David Smoljak of the Mayors and Independents (STAN) party, which is part of the ruling coalition, agrees with Sulakova.
He has campaigned in recent years for greater public media independence in order to protect them against nationalization.
There were protests against Andrej Babis’ plans for public media during his last tenure as prime minister (pictured here: a demonstration in Prague in 2020)Image: Michal Cizek/AFP/Getty Images “We have ensured that one-third of the members of supervisory boards at public media are chosen by the senate, which is elected in a different political cycle to the parliament,” Smoljak told DW.
He would like to see the senate appoint half of these members, but says that the government was not willing to back that.
The reason for this, says Smoljak, is that part of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) of Prime Minister Fiala, which is the largest party in the three-party alliance Spolu, is opposed to a strengthening of the public media.
“However,” he added confidently, “I think we will manage to push through the increase in license fees before the election.” Parliament is due to vote on the matter on February 14.
He also views Babis’ plans as an attempt to destroy public media in the Czech Republic. Nevertheless, he believes that Czech public media will remain independent even if Babis returns to power.
“We are in a better situation than Slovakia,” said Smoljak. “Our public media are more resilient, and any attempt to force them under government control would meet with resistance from both journalists and most citizens.”
This article was originally published in German and adapted and updated by Aingeal Flanagan
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