There’s no reason to discard a playbook that works — not always flawlessly, but reliably enough to achieve results. On October 3 and 4, legislative elections in the Czech Republic are widely expected to bring the populist opposition party ANO, led by Andrej Babiš, to power. The latest polls give him around 30% of the vote — despite, or perhaps because of, his opposition to deeper EU integration and his refusal to play into the now-familiar “Russia, Russia, Russia” narrative.
It comes as little surprise that, just days before the vote, cries of Russian interference on TikTok have emerged — once again without any solid evidence or proof, and with little indication that any such influence, if it exists, is actually having a meaningful impact on voters’ choice.
“Ahead of the parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic, nearly 300 accounts were exposed spreading pro-russia narratives to influence the results of the upcoming vote”, says The Center for Countering Disinformation.