According to a STEM poll, Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s approval rating has plummeted after COVID-19 cases spiked in the Czech Republic.
US media outlet Bloomberg reports on the sinking popularity of the ANO party and Andrej Babis, excerpt below.
Babis’s government was one of the first in the European Union to shut schools and businesses and require people to wear masks, is now struggling to contain a surge in new cases that followed the lifting of restrictions in June.
With the country of 10.7 million now trailing only Spain as the EU nation with the most new cases per capita, Babis’s health minister stepped down on Monday. Support for the ruling ANO party has fallen to its lowest level since its dominating 2017 election victory, according to an Aug. 31-Sept. 13 survey from the STEM pollster published Tuesday.
“It’s the reaction of voters to the spike and to the chaotic communication of the government in the past few weeks,” said Josef Mlejnek, a political scientist at Charles University in Prague. “While Czech society is quite divided over the coronavirus and measures that should be taken against it, ANO voters are often elderly people, and they require the government to protect them.”
Coronavirus cases in the Czech Republic have surpassed 54,000 and 551 dead since 1 March.