CEVRO Institute

‘Anti-System’ Centrists Win Czech Hearts and Minds

Published by Balkan Insight on Mon, 05/27/2019 - 14:13

Mainstream pro-EU parties on the centre-left and centre-right took a battering in Czech elections for the European Parliament but the main beneficiaries were "anti-system" centrist parties rather than the far right.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis' ruling ANO party came top, gaining two seats for a total of six of the country's 21 seats and 21.18% of the vote.

Czechs Eye ‘Symbolic’ Pirate Breakthrough in Europe

Published by Balkan Insight on Tue, 05/21/2019 - 10:51

One Saturday in February, Ivan Bartos pitched up in an impoverished Czech neighbourhood mainly inhabited by Roma.

Rock-star thin with shoulder-length dreadlocks tamed in a ponytail, 39-year-old Bartos is the leader of the Czech edition of the Pirate movement, the third biggest party in this landlocked Central European state.