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The street in front of the entrance to the metro in Prague Andalu only begins to attract buskers and other performers and vendors as the weather improves. Early Wednesday morning, a group of elders from the ANO movement unfurled their stand under the still-leafless paulownia trees. It did not appeal to the upcoming European elections, but rather to the Quartet.
“Returning to citizens is the last tool we have,” MP Radek Vondracek said earlier. “We will prepare a nationwide petition movement, where we will mobilize the citizens of the entire Czech Republic,” the movement's deputy leader, Karel Havlicek, announced in mid-January.
The group's mobilization in Prague is said to have been successful so far. “In those two hours, we have signed many papers,” an elderly woman tells a reporter, as she flips through the plates warning that the citizens who signed them do not agree to replace the koruna with the euro in the check. Republic.
ANO wants to mobilize the Czech Republic
In January of this year we wrote about the appeal of representatives of the ANO movement.
“The petitions against the euro and illegal immigration are so popular that people don't understand the phrase very much and we have to explain it,” says a gray-haired man in his seventies in a green jacket. . At the same time he asks the reporter for a press pass. “There's always a lot of different people hanging around here who want to interact with us,” he explains.
Meanwhile, the elder's colleagues manage to convince the elderly married couple. A well-dressed couple with a fresh tan will sign everyone off. “I agree with everything,” the supporter sums up.
A group of party members is accompanied by a member of Mladé ANO. The curly-haired boy with glasses is trying to reach out to people desperately, but is said to catch only one in 15. Many are also said to be worried about his association with the ANO movement. “They say no to the euro, but they don't want to sign the petition because of the movement. Some of them are rude, for example, one man yelled at me… how to say it politely… he was committing a sexual act to the leader Andrej Babis,” he laughs.
Petition of Yes Movement
- We oppose accepting illegal immigrants.
- We do not want to convert Czech crown to Euro.
- We do not intend to abrogate or limit the Czech Republic's right of veto.
- We oppose the introduction of postal elections.
Is it part of the campaign or not?
The petition stands with the logo of the movement surrounded by ANO and young ANO members, which has sprung up across the country in the past two weeks.
Alena Schillerová, head of the movement's parliamentary committee, also came to visit the signing site this week. All positions are clearly marked with the logo of the ANO movement in addition to the texts of the petition.
However, the ANO movement does not count it as part of the campaign before the upcoming elections to the European Parliament. Similarly, election campaign expenses do not include expenses related to petition campaigns.
“The election campaign doesn't start until next month, it's nothing like that,” explained a volunteer at another petition stand in the center of Prague, with whom the reporter spoke a week ago.
The ANO movement does not report expenses related to petitions, even in the transparent account set up for the European Parliament elections. However, it is important to add that the parties usually collect costs in advance.
The STAN campaign included expeditions to Austria
Unlike the ANO movement, Interior Minister Vít Rakušan has included the costs of his debates without censorship in the campaign since the end of January. We have detailed more about how much it costs in this article.
The Management Oversight Office of Political Parties and Political Movements sees it differently. “In my opinion, if they have a logo, it's a campaign. This is simply a boost to that movement,” Aneta Pinkova, a member of the office in charge of overseeing elections to the European Parliament, commented on the situation.
Parties must include this ad in their election campaign costs starting January 26, when President Peter Powell officially announces the election date. The office allows only three exceptions.
Simply put, these are organizational events, usually conferences, and promotional activities unrelated to long-term campaigning, such as party or movement websites or press conferences. A third exception deals with the activities of party representatives performing certain public roles – these are the activities of mayors, deputies and others.
However, the movement's spokesman, Martin Vodika, is adamant that it is not a campaign and does not need to bill the costs of the petition to the campaign. “Information leaflets or other promotional materials are not distributed at the petition sites, and the collection of signatures is carried out by members of the ANO and Mladé ANO movements, of course without the right to pay. For these reasons, we do not include the collection of signatures on petition papers in the election costs,” he replied to Chesnam Spraw.
