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Reportér | Success in Brussels, silence at home. Czech politicians fail to sell Europe to voters

Czech involvement in the European Union has long been ambivalent. The country has had a number of concrete successes, but these have gone largely unnoticed by the domestic public, which has traditionally been sceptical of European integration. The ANO movement entered politics with a pro-European stance, and Andrej Babiš managed to negotiate a number of advantages in the EU, but today his party ranks more among the critics. This ambivalent attitude is likely to persist after the upcoming autumn elections. Viktor Daněk, deputy director of the EUROPEUM Institute, writes for Reporter.

In the Media

30. April 2025

Among politicians, officials, diplomats and experts in Brussels, it was generally believed that the Czechs had exceeded expectations many times over (at the end of 2022, after the end of the Czech Presidency). They negotiated a number of important compromises and maintained European unity even in difficult decisions, including capping gas prices, maintaining a pro-European perspective on Ukraine or tightening sanctions against Russia. The faces of the Czech diplomats present, who unusually sat down among the journalists, showed relief and satisfaction. However, one could not help feeling that the tributes were taking place in a different reality than the one Czechs live in at home.

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