Final Word from Monday, October 13, 2014

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Andrej Babiš's three-year old movement ANO won the most votes in the municipal elections, but only 6.49% of eligible voters actually voted for it. (It won 14.59% of the total votes, and voter turnout was 44.5%.) The percentage is only slightly higher when only the votes in areas where ANO had candidates are counted. In large cities, ANO won 19.34% of the vote, with a voter turnout of 33.77%, giving it the support of 6.53% of the eligible voters in the cities. When Adriana Krnáčová seeks to form an ANO-led coalition in Prague, she'll be speaking for only 8.33% of the city's eligible voters. (ANO won 22.08% of the vote, and the turnout was 37.72%). A full 91.67% of Prague voters didn't want her party or didn't bother to say they did. Can we really say that she "won" the elections? If this is a revolution, it's one supported by a very small slice of the population. It takes an audacious leader to draw any other conclusion from these elections. [Czech Republic city ČSSD]