Czech Opposition Takes Anti-Populist Unity for a Test Drive

Ivan Bartos (l), leader of the Pirate Party, stands next to Vít Rakušan (R), leader of the Mayors and Independents party. Photo: Pirate Party Polarised

Polls published through September suggest that the twin coalitions are close to securing a combined 43.5 per cent of the vote, which could be just enough to win 101 of the 200 seats in parliament's lower house.

"The political landscape is split in two," says Marketa Adamova, leader of Top 09. "On one side, the mainstream parties and democrats are making a comeback. The rest of the field is populists and extremists. That's why it's vital that the Democratic Bloc wins a majority."

Such a result would offer a huge confidence boost to similar efforts being made across the region to oust populist authoritarians. But that said, Babis is low-hanging fruit.

Since he formed a minority coalition with the Social Democrats (CSSD) in 2018 and flirting with extremist parties of both left and right, Babis has been accused of degrading Czech political culture and overseeing state capture in the interests of his Agrofert business empire. He has also appeared at times to be in cahoots with the cunning president, Milos Zeman, in the latter's efforts to short-circuit democracy,

Yet at the same time, the billionaire has generally steered the country within the European mainstream, and resisted Zeman's efforts to push the country closer to Russia and China. Although his economic power has allowed him to seize control of a significant chunk of the Czech media, Babis lacks the political strength to rig the judicial or electoral systems to his advantage.

By contrast, Hungary's Viktor Orban and Poland's Jaroslaw Kaczynski have used such attacks on democratic institutions to...