Ruling parties to officially reject post-election deal with ANO

The leaders of the parties in the Czech ruling coalition will meet in Prague on Tuesday evening to jointly reaffirm their parties’ rejection of post-election cooperation with the opposition ANO party of Andrej Babiš (ANO), which is expected to win the October general elections by a strong margin. The Pirate Party, a former member of the ruling centre-right coalition, which is now in the opposition, has been invited to the meeting at a Prague restaurant, but has not confirmed attendance. Pirate leader Zdeněk Hřib urged his former government partners to have their party bodies formally vote on a cooperation ban with ANO, arguing that this carries more weight than leaders’ pledges. Commentators note that the pledge to ostracize ANO will complicate the party’s chances of forming a ruling coalition after the elections, since it would have to rely on support from Tomio Okamura’s anti-EU and anti-NATO Freedom and Direct Democracy Party (SPD) and the Stačilo! grouping which involves the Communist Party.