Billionaire Babis scores big in Czech election

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech billionaire Andrej Babis won a thumping victory in Saturday’s parliamentary election, giving the anti-establishment businessman facing fraud charges a strong mandate to cut taxes, lift public investment and fight immigration.

Babis's ANO movement held an unbeatable 30.04 percent of the vote with 94.4 percent of voting stations having reported -- almost three times any other party and giving it a chance to rule with just one partner in a coalition. (Graphic tmsnrt.rs/2vO4hPW)

ANO is the first party to break a quarter century of dominance by two mainstream center-right and center-left parties, highlighting a shifting political landscape in Europe where a refugee crisis has given rise to protest groups.

At just 7.4 percent, the ruling Social Democrats of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka were on course for their worst result since the country peacefully split with Slovakia in 1993.

-snip-

#WORLD NEWS OCTOBER 21, 2017 / 2:57 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Jason Hovet, Robert Muller
5 MIN READ


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-czech-election/billionaire-babis-scores-big-in-czech-election-idUSKBN1CQ05Y

[Mr. Sparkle]

1. It sucks to be them, Oh wait ... !

Fascism seems to be on the rise at the moment i wonder did the Russians have any effect on their election.

[Ken Burch]

5. I'm thinking the Czech Republic would the LAST place anybody would be swayed by Russia.

n/t.

[Mr. Sparkle]

10. Thats not according to the Washington Post

"With voters heading to the polls on Friday and Saturday, the center’s mission is more relevant than ever. Sites with questionable content are now being read by about a fourth of all Czechs, according to estimates, and the current government is concerned that many of their owners are supporting the Kremlin in Moscow. There are viral anti-Muslim tirades, incidents are being declared terror attacks without evidence, and false rumors are circulating about NATO and the E.U.

Yet despite all that, the Czech anti-fake news task force has been rather absent."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/10/20/czech-elections-show-how-difficult-it-is-to-fix-the-fake-news-problem/?utm_term=.d943b8d16910|

It wouldn't surprise me of there was a lot more to discover after the election. Russia seem to be spreading their tentacles of hate everywhere.

[Ken Burch]

11. I was referring the the memories most Czechs have about the Russians, or have had passed down

n/t.

[Mr. Sparkle]

13. They dont have to support Russia directly in order to do their bidding.

The Russians, like the republicans have used wedge issues or far right issues to get the populace to vote for whom they favour. They try to help the interests of those, who favour their interests.

But yeah, i get what your trying to say.

[Jake Stern]

7. Could it possibly be

that these immigrants simply refuse to integrate into their host nation's culture? Who insist on bringing their backward tribal customs, their burqas and their misogynistic views with them and, most insulting, make demands that the host culture change to accommodate THEM?

Nah, it's gotta be Putin.

[Mr. Sparkle]

12. 95% of the population are ethnic Czechs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Czech_Republic#Immigration

i can see how things might be getting out of hand over there. (implied sarcasm)

[Ken Burch]

14. Uh...the Czech Republic has almost no immigrants.

And thanks for the blanket claim that any and all Muslim immigrants are extremist whackjobs.

[Yupster]

15. Need a SNL church lady video

Could it be, oh I don't know, could it be PUTIN?

Wish I could do tech stuff.

[rurallib]

2. is this a world-wide disease?

[sandensea]

6. Apparently so.

There's Putin and Cheeto of course, Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko, Argentina's Mauricio Macri (both figured prominently in the Panama Papers), Chile's Sebastian Piñera, and now this guy (what a name!).

By some quirk of human nature, there's something appealing about vulgar, bigoted billionaires to a lot of people - the weak man's idea of a strong man, as they say.

[LiberalLovinLug]

3. It sucks that the right just can't lose, and in fact get stronger the more chaos they create

You can even orginate that mass immigration, all those fleeing the turmoil in Iraq, on US and other western countries meddling in the MI, either the leftover colony mentality towards their natural resources, or downright military invasion. Which all was fertilizer for groups like Al Quaeda and ISIS. Who then, through their brutality, caused this massive exodus from their countries. Which in turn gave rise to right wing anti-immigrant sentiment in countries that are most affected by this unprecedented surge of immigrants.

Now we see billionaires being elected in places. Most billionaires do not want to even be bothered with government other than to lobby and try and bribe them. They want to remain in the private world and just concentrate on themselves and their business. The only billionaires that run for office are those that think they can get financial benefit, by soaking the citizens they supposedly represent. Setting up the laws that favour the rich even more than they do. While cutting money that benefits the working majority. Yet they get in through stoking fear and prejudice. So many regular folks are duped into voting for them.

[Ken Burch]

4. the Social Democrats actually took fewer votes than the Communists.

In an election...in the Czech Republic....

[DFW]

8. An unfortunate, but predictable result.

In Western Europe, where the countries have economies and room to accommodate more refugees than they were really able to handle comfortably, the right made gains, but gained no leadership. In small countries in the east, where they had neither the economies nor the space, as well as substantial gypsy populations to have paved the way for racial discrimination to be already ingrained, the right made predictable inroads by just saying, "look what they (the left) did to us, we can 't take this any more, and if you vote for us, you won't have to." Hungary, Poland, now the Czech Republic and even relatively prosperous Austria (!!!) have lurched to the right.

This can be turned around, but not by the traditional "tolerance" the way it has been practiced up to now. In Holland and Belgium, it was unofficially forbidden to arrest a Moroccan immigrant or even report in the press that a violent crime had been committed by one, as the governments there thought it would be discriminatory to do so. It led to the rise of the far right in both countries. The far right started to fade the moment those policies were abandoned. The Vlaamse Blok is no longer a major force in Belgium, and Geert Wilders' movement lost, as did Marine LePen in France. AfD did get 13% in the latest German nationwide elections, but I'm betting they are near their peak. If governments have the money and resources to start educating ALL immigrants and refugees IMMEDIATELY AND IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGES as to what the rules are in their new host countries, and not give them special treatment in the way of money and immunity from prosecution over and above the people living there, the far right will find themselves sitting on a chair with only two legs in no time flat.

Germany is a special case, as before the refugees even started coming in from Asia and Africa, they had a flood of (often phony) "ethnic Germans" from Eastern Europe and Russia that wanted to "come home" after communism collapsed. They foolishly let in anyone who could say their name was Müller and pronounce "Ja" and "Nein." What was your occupation? "I Vaz Engineer." OK, here's a €2500 a month pension, a living allowance, a cell phone, a car and an apartment. My wife, on the other hand, who was a social worker in Germany all her professional life, gets about €850 a month pension. Both are typical of how the German government handled the situation. And they DIDN'T expect resentment? My wife had always voted for the SPD and the Greens. Many in her situation had switched to the CDU long ago. We know no one who votes AfD, and hope we never do, but we know where they come from, and that they are a preventable illness.

[YOHABLO]

9. Billionaires lives only matter. Welcome to the New World.