What the papers say: The Czech election shows the march of the populists isn’t over

The Czech election was something of a shock to those who thought the ‘march of the populists in Europe’ is over Andrej Babis – who ‘shares the anti-migrant stance and hatred for EU refugee policy of Hungary’s premier Viktor Orban and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland’s ruling party’ – was the ‘clear winner’, says the FT. What’s more, the paper points out, the ‘far right’ won 11 per cent of the vote in the country’s election. Yet for all the comparisons, ‘the tycoon insists he is no Mr Orban’. Although he was against the euro, Babis says he ‘is not anti-EU’. But this does not mean the Czech Republic’s EU partners won’t need to be ‘vigilant’, says the FT. ‘Young democracies’ are prone to ‘manipulation’ and a ‘retreat from democracy’ – which could be brought about by Babis’s apparent view of ‘checks and balances as encumbrances’ – would be a ‘tragedy’. Despite the disquiet about Babis, though, ‘western states…should remember that the election of these governments reflects disquiet with the EU status quo’.