Český rozhlas | European election results are a sobering wake-up call for ruling parties

Citizens around Europe are assessing of the outcome of elections to the European Parliament. How may the results change the direction and policies of the EU? And what do they signal about the domestic situation? Deputy director of EUROPEUM Institute Viktor Daněk commented for Czech radio.

If we look at the election results in the Czech Republic, there are many interesting aspects. The success of the opposition ANO party, which won the election, was widely expected. The second place for the Spolu (Together) coalition of the ruling parties is not so bad, I think, given that it is quite normal in European elections that voters tend to punish the ruling parties. Then, we saw the very surprising success of various far-right and far-left parties. The success of the Oath and Motorists coalition is very shocking I would say, because the leader of the coalition had some issues and trouble in the course of the campaign with his connection to the neo-Nazi movement. He was seen doing the Nazi salute on a photograph and he had a swastika in his home as we could see in one of the live streams, so all this is very troubling.

You can read the full interview here.

Viktor Daněk
Deputy Director

Before entering the NGO sphere, Viktor Daněk worked for almost ten years as a journalist. During his time with the public service Czech radio, he focused mainly on covering EU affairs. He spent almost five years as a permanent correspondent in Brussels, where he cooperated with other media outlets. Before his career in journalism, he gained experience in the area of marketing and communication in the Česká spořitelna banking group and at the Czech Technical University in Prague. He holds university degrees in Media Studies and International Relations. Viktor Daněk joined the EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy in October 2023. He continues to be active in the media as a freelancer. His main areas of interest are institutional questions of European integration, globalisation and the EU’s climate and migration policy.