Bárta to run under Dawn banner

The chairman of Public Affairs, Vít Bárta, has announced he will run in the upcoming election under the banner of Dawn, a political movement founded by tourism expert turned senator Tomio Okamura. Mr Bárta will head the candidates’ list in the region of Plzeň and faces the Civic Democrats’ Jiří Pospíšil and others. Mr Okamura strongly welcomed Mr Bárta as a candidate, saying – in his view – the leader of Public Affairs (the upstart party in the last election) was the only minister who had taken seriously anti-corruption recommendations put forward by the government’s economic advisory council, NERV, seriously. Over the course of the last three years, Public Affairs was first a coalition member, continuing in the opposition after the party splintered into two groups, one of them LIDEM formerly led by Karolína Peake.