ANO (Action of Dissatisfied Citizens)

ANO (Action of Dis­sat­is­fied Cit­i­zens) is a Czech cen­trist-pop­ulist move­ment found­ed in 2011 by bil­lion­aire Andrej Babiš, ini­tial­ly posi­tioned as an anti-cor­rup­tion and tech­no­crat­ic alter­na­tive to the Czech polit­i­cal estab­lish­ment. Over time, the party’s stance has shift­ed toward nation­al­ist pop­ulism, char­ac­ter­ized by anti-elite and Euroscep­tic rhetoric, as well as a grow­ing align­ment with right-wing nar­ra­tives. Its 2024 deci­sion to join the Patri­ots for Europe alliance in the Euro­pean Parliament—alongside Orbán’s Fidesz and Austria’s FPÖ—sig­naled a for­mal break from its ear­li­er lib­er­al-cen­trist affil­i­a­tions. Domes­ti­cal­ly, ANO now risks becom­ing a con­duit for nation­al-con­ser­v­a­tive pol­i­cy through poten­tial coali­tions with far-right part­ners such as Free­dom and Direct Democ­ra­cy (SPD) and Motorists for Them­selves. Observers warn this tra­jec­to­ry could erode Czechia’s lib­er­al ori­en­ta­tion, nar­row­ing space for LGBTQ+ rights and dis­tanc­ing the coun­try from its ear­li­er pro-Euro­pean and pro-Ukrain­ian consensus.

Exter­nal References:
1. Czech vote puts same-sex mar­riage, LGBTQ+ rights in the balance
2. Czechia elec­tion: The specter of pop­ulism returns
3. Czechs and bal­ances: Pro­tect­ing Ukraine aid from the new gov­ern­ment in Prague