Central Europe’s Populists Struggle to Repeat Orban’s Winning Formula

Babis' pragmatic - or hypocritical - approach to the EU looks likely to serve him well when Czechs vote May 24-25. Polls suggest his party will come first with about 25 per cent of the votes.

This result is all the more remarkable, given that this essentially one-man party has no real ideology, or content in terms of policies.

But it does have a superb PR machine, and the party is often accused of stealing interesting-looking policies from other parties and selling them as its own.

That is the complaint of the Social Democrats who have been a minority partner in government with Ano - both of whom claim credit for a policy of offering more financial support to newborns.

Much the same complaint has come also from the opposition conservative ODS party as well - which has accused Babis and Ano of making off with its slogan about a "strong Czechia".

Looking at the European political landscape more generally, however, Babis is not the biggest populist either in the Czech Republic or in the so-called "Visegrad Four" countries - comprising the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary.

Czech Republic's Prime Minister Andrej Babis speaks to media as he arrives for a special EU summit on Brexit at the European Council in Brussels in April 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/Stephanie Lecocq

Babis is torn two ways. He desperately longs to be taken seriously by the most important European politicians, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, or German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

At the same time, he repeats phrases about danger of immigration borrowed from his admired Hungarian colleague, Viktor Orban.

Babis, who has Hungarian blood, seems mesmerised by the Hungarian leader, who has become a role model for less experienced...