TOP 09 takes pole position in opinion poll ahead of traditional political giants

Some people may have thought it was a political blip that would soon lose its allure, but a relative newcomer on the Czech political scene, TOP 09, appears to be going from strength to strength. A recent poll suggests it has eclipsed the two traditional parties on the right and left and is now the people’s favorite.

Karel Schwarzenberg, Miroslav Kalousek (right), photo: CTK

The conservative party TOP 09 was the biggest revelation at May’s elections when it polled around 17 percent and becoming the third biggest force in the lower house.

Sceptics may have tipped the party to quickly lose its shine but that has not happened. In fact, a poll released this week by the SANEP agency suggests TOP 09 has added another 6.0 percentage points to now stand at just under 23.0 percent.

The survey gives TOP 09 a slender lead over the left-leaning Social Democrats who are on 22.6 percent and an almost two point lead over the traditional party of the right, the Civic Democrats.

Political commentator Jiří Pehe says the poll results are not so surprising and suggests the party is reaping the reward for its tough negotiating stand during coalition negotiations.

“It reflects the fact that during the coalition talks about a government, TOP 09 came out on top as the most resolute and decisive party which managed to push through most of their agenda.”

In one of the most significant victories TOP 09 trampled over Civic Democrat reservations and insisted that its deputy leader Miroslav Kalousek return to his former post as minister of finance. Mr. Kalousek has since appeared to have shaken off the Civic Democrat desire to shackle him with one of their appointees as deputy minister to keep him in check.

But as the rhetoric about blood, sweat and tears sacrifices to curb the budget deficit become reality, Mr. Pehe warns that the three centre-right coalition parties will start paying the price in terms of their popularity.

“I think that the moment that some concrete measures will be introduced, various cuts in the social welfare system in particular, there will be some backlash and these parties will be punished and their popularity will drop. I think that at this point the most important finding coming out of this survey, and perhaps other future polls for TOP 09, is that their popularity is not dropping or decreasing before the municipal and Senate elections in October and that is perhaps the most important news.”

At those elections TOP 09 looks like taking some more political scalps, most likely at the expense of its main government partner, the Civic Democrats.